Gormleys is an art gallery and auctioneer specialising in Irish art, specifically painting and…read moresculpture. 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…read moreestablished 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.

I am in no way an art buff. I'm not an art anything in fact. But I do like to have a look around…read morethese places, even just to seem a little cultured to the store assistant who can obviously seen through my nods of appreciation. From the outside it looks a little more commercial to other galleries in the area. It always has advertisements in its windows, stating silly pointless things that you should already expect to find in a gallery (not signs saying 'pretty paintings!' but close enough). The price range clearly shows that the stuff here really is for someone who wants to make a serious commitment. Paying 4/5 hundred pounds for a painting the size of my palm is the biggest commitment anyone can make in my opinion!

Eakin's my favourite art gallery on the Lisburn Road. A lovely little family run gallery spanning…read moretwo floors of a red brick townhouse. Specialists in contemporary Irish art they also have some pieces from the past as well. You'll find a range of Artists' work here including George Callaghan, Brian Ballard, Neil Shawcross, Dean McDowell, Louis le Brocquy, J B Vallely and Terry Bradley amongst others. I always call in for a look when I pass Eakin. Yesterday I visited to view the beautiful, stylised, atmospheric paintings of George Callaghan. His harvest sunset paintings are mesmerising and I adore his 'Purple Haze' landscapes. A beautiful exhibition for this time of year as we near the end of October. Prices vary, ranging from smaller works for a few hundred pounds to larger paintings for a few thousand. If I win the lotto I may one day be able to buy instead of just browse! The owner Brian Eakin is very welcoming and their website's kept fully updated with all current paintings listed. However nothing beats a stroll through Eakin Gallery to see the paintings in the flesh.

The Tom Caldwell gallery is unusual because the paintings, mainly the work of prominent Irish…read moreartists, are displayed among the furnishings for sale that comprise the other part of this business so you can see how they might look once they are away from a gallery in a domestic setting. There are also some fine rugs and textiles, including hand made wool rugs from Iran - expect them to cost around £600 - and Spanish kilims, which cost much less. Founded in 1969, the Caldwell gallery grew out of the already established furniture business and though the showroom, upstairs above a music equipment shop, is the epitome of modernist style with a 1970s feel. So comfortable and relaxed did I find the atmosphere here that I was reluctant to return to my trek down the Lisburn Road.

I love browsing through art galleries and the Engine Room is the latest small gallery in Belfast I…read morehave stumbled upon. Run by East Belfast Arts Collective, this Gallery has moved from its original location in a mill Engine Room to a street-level showroom just a little further east on the Newtownards Road. Since the Engine Room opened in the mid 1990s it has been according to the gallery "an engine at the core of the development of contemporary art in Belfast." The range of works on show include everything from oils and acrylics to prints, video, sculpture, arte povere, installation art and new technology. The gallery also aim to showcase lesser known local artists alongside more well known artists with international profiles. There are new exhibitions every month.

This is a great Gallery space in the heart of East Belfast. It hosts local, national and…read moreInternational exhibition. The latest exhibition from 1st April 2010 is a solo show by Deirdre Robb. works on display are paintings, installations and expeimental prints

We visited the Ulster Museum after we had done quite a few other attractions and decided to only…read morefocus on one of the displays, namely the section dedicated to the Troubles. Extremely informative and well-presented.

Great museum with a wide variety of things- like a national museum. So many genres, and we got…read moreextra lucky that there was an exhibit of current artists with art for sale. That exhibit was gigantic and impressive. Only downside of the museum was no acoustical/ absorption to buffer the screeching children. It was well worth a visit if you have spare time in Belfast.

A gallery and framers which shows a diverse range of contemporary artworks. Paintings, sculptures,…read moreprints, drawings - they have it all. Canvas staff are friendly and allow you to have a browse at your own leisure. The one and only drawback is that it is such a small space.

I am basing my review on a launch of an exhibition I attended here in November of last year…read more It was a great little show where 50 artists submitted 2 small canvasses each to the show. The canvasses filled the walls and it was fun trying to guess the pairs artists had submitted. My friend had two fantastic paintings in this show, but some of the stuff submitted was real amateur crap. Like stuff drawn with markers with tinfoil stuck on it. I mean come on! For someone like my friend, who has a degree in Fine Art, works in an artist studio and is trained to a high level to be exhibiting her work beside some messers using markers was a bit questionable for me. I would agree with the other reviewer in saying the standard of art Canvas show is average.

My first visit, 07/09/2017, introduced me to a gallery I've heard much about. It lived up to it's…read morereputation. Brimming with challenging, contemporary art tackling the big issues of our time, Catalyst is not for the faint-hearted. This uber-cool, industrial, warehouse suits the art it showcases (installation, conceptual, screen etc) and the radical art on display perfectly suits the space. Numerous artists were represented, but I was especially drawn to American/ Metis artist Dylan A T Miner's red wall hangings, called "Gesture of Solidarity". Miner deals with indigenous/ colonial themes and his banners dominated the gallery, catching the eye, demanding attention and investigation. Fantastic work. Catalyst is volunteer run/ nonprofit and as well as serving up fascinating experimental art, it runs a range of events, screenings and activities such as the Anarchist Bookfair. Quite possibly one of the most exciting art spaces in Belfast. I'm only sorry it took me so long to get round to visiting...

Always a great show pushing the boundaries of there practice. Check it out on Late Night Art. It's…read morethe first Thursday of the month!