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'The altitude of celestial bodies'
The title of the Belltable art gallery exhibition opening this Thursday 2 is a quadrant, the original instrument used to measure the altitude of celestial bodies. "Quadrant refers to the measure of an artists work as they look out at their future." PRO for the Belltable, Rachel Murphy, enlightens us. "Samuel Walshe founded this exhibition for young Limerick artists five years ago and as of last year it opened to bring in Irish artists. Essentially to be eligible you have to be under 30 years, be Irish and be a full-time artist - if there were no exhibitions for upcoming artists there would be nothing for them to work towards".

That makes sense as exhibitions function as oxygen to the essentially private work of artists, enabling the public to source, view and buy their creations. The quartet which compose quadrant '99 are Claire Halpin whose work deals with the concept of communal grief; Katie Holten's paper illuminations are inspired by memory's idiosyncrasy; Linda Shelvin uses painting to communicate the wordless language of light and space while Brian Hegarty presents landscape as a "breathing chronicle", marked by time.

Paul O'Reilly, curator/director of Limerick City Gallery of Art has selected Quadrant '99 which opens to all at 6pm this Thursday 2 with a wine reception - it closes December 23.

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