Gormleys Fine Art

Gormleys is an art gallery and auctioneer specialising in Irish art, specifically painting and sculpture. They have galleries in Belfast, Dublin and Omagh and participate in various art fairs and exhibitions throughout the world.
I’ve only ever been in Gormleys Belfast gallery and being a pauper have never purchased any art from them, I just browse. So I can’t comment on their credentials as art auctioneers, but they are probably the biggest, most established and well known art dealers in Northern Ireland.
Gormleys located at 471 Lisburn Road is a bright, small, glass fronted gallery which looks just like an up market shop. The staff are nice, allowing visitors to have a good ‘riffle’ around. To front of the shop is a pristine gallery with art carefully hung and perfectly displayed. Out back there’s another room full of art that’s ready for the next auction. It’s an Aladdin’s cave of paintings and sculptures piled high and crammed onto every wall space. Something similar to a car boot sale, except here your purchases will cost thousands of pounds, not pennies!
There are some mesmerising paintings by Lisa Ballard, Ken Hamilton, Simon McWilliams, Paul Wright, Catherine Creaney, Kyle Barnes and Lorcan Vallely if you have the money and wall space to spare. I personally will just look on and admire. Though Gormleys do participate in the annual London ‘Affordable Art Fair’, so maybe I will be able to purchase something after all…

If you wanted to get an overview of what is sort of paintings are being produced by both established and upcoming artists in Northern Ireland Gormleys is a useful place to have a look. The many paintings for sale are displayed over three floors and a couple of armchairs are thoughtfully provided on the top storey. I don’t quite know why, but looking at paintings can be extremely exhausting. Of course the prices are high, but they match the quality, starting at around £300. As stated on the website Gormleys aims to accommodate and offer advice to a broad spectrum of customers from beginner collectors to serious investors. I think that is a fair assessment, because Gormleys seemed quite welcoming to a non buyer that has to live in hope like me and a more relaxed environment to visit unlike some other smart galleries.