Life limiting art

The RHA's annual show is always impressive and a huge event on the social calendar, but the more innovative works are overshadowed, says Billy Leahy

Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2. 01 661 2558, www.royalhibernianacademy.com until 8 July

Reviewing the Royal Hibernian Academy's Annual Exhibition is a bit like writing a literary criticism piece on the 2006 edition of the Who's Who. With hundreds of canvases and sculptures crammed into the large Ely Place space, practically every inch of wall and floor is mercilessly devoured by a mass of canvases – and seldom are two works by the same artist. What results is a cacophony of artistic sound bites all clamouring for attention and straining to be heard above the general hubbub of the show.

Still-life watercolours and contemporary photography battle politely with abstract oil paintings and pencil sketches for prime locations in the Gallagher and Ashford spaces. Even the staircase in the Atrium is replete with artworks by invited artists, RHA Academicians and those selected from the 2,500 works entered in the open submission category. This year Chung Eun Mo, Brian King, Sahoko Blake and Patrick O'Reilly are among the invited artists gobbled up by the sheer volume of work in the show.

Every last postage stamp-sized space is filled, with walls packed to such a degree that you also expect to find an oil painting hanging squarely behind a cubicle door in the toilets or a sculpture doubling as a coat stand in the cloakroom.

In pure artistic terms, the exhibition is a tumultuous mishmash of genres, styles and media, making it impossible to review coherently without having blinkered one's gaze to a select few works. In terms of size and importance, however, the RHA Annual Exhibition is difficult to ignore. Now in its 176th year, it seems to gain in significance – in society terms at least, if not artistic – year after year.

And it is hard to see the RHA Annual Exhibition primarily as anything other than a society event to be pencilled in social dairies and covered by the back pages of the Sindo; art on the other hand, bizarrely given there is so much of it, takes a back seat. The truly remarkable works are easily overlooked and skimmed over, with the more innovative and progressive pieces outnumbered by fairly dull, non-offensive and derivative paintings.

This is a shame. "Tradition & Innovation" are the two tenets of the RHA's programme and, despite the obvious difficulty in finding a balance between these two elements, this is normally achieved by the Academy – the belief in this combination has even prompted the establishment of a new art school as part of the recently announced expansion and development programme. Throughout the year, the RHA houses some of the most intelligent, challenging and inventive exhibitions – but come the annual show, the few works that represent the gallery's regular fare are not only overshadowed but washed over by a quiet but swollen tide of mediocrity.

In parts, however, the exhibition is wildly impressive and there is no doubting the depth of talent on display throughout the show. But for an exhibition that should be a showcase of the Academy's multiple strengths, the RHA fails to do itself justice.