The shortlist for the 2018 RCSI Art Award in association with The Irish Times and the RHA Annual Exhibition, which recognises the connection between art and healing, has been announced. The five artworks were selected from more than 600 works that will be on display at the 188th RHA Annual Exhibition, a free public exhibition which opened on Monday, 21 May and continues until Saturday, 11 August.

The shortlisted works are: ‘Brig. Gen. Jimmy Flynn (retd) DSM’ by Amelia Stein RHA, ‘Venus of Holles Street’ by Jason Ellis, ‘Extraverted’ by Killian Schurmann, ‘Seeing Red’ by Taffina Flood; and ‘Buoyed’ by Michael Quane RHA.

Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive/Registrar, RCSI said: ‘‘As a focused health sciences institution, we strive to nurture an environment that encourages and inspires innovation in our students, researchers and trainees, for the benefit of human health. Now in its third year, the RCSI Art Award continues to deliver an inspiring shortlist of artworks, which evoke a sense of curiosity and wellbeing in those who engage with them. We look forward to announcing the winner later this summer.”

All works of art, in any medium, selected for the 188th RHA Annual Exhibition were considered for the RCSI Art Award. The winner will be announced before the exhibition closes. The recipient will be awarded €5,000 and the RCSI silver medal. The successful artist will also receive a commission to the value of €10,000 for a new work for the RCSI collection.

Established in 2016, the prize will run for a period of five years until 2020.

The RCSI Art Award was established to celebrate the common heritage of RCSI and the RHA and the long-standing association between art, medicine and wellbeing. Both RCSI (1784) and the RHA (1823) have Georgian origins and are 32-county bodies with educational roles. RCSI was occupied, while the RHA was destroyed in the Easter Rising of 1916 and the RCSI Art Award was established to coincide with the centenary of these historic events.

Open to all artists working in paint, drawing, print, sculpture, photography and architecture, the RHA Annual Exhibition attracts a large public and critical audience with 48,000 visitors last year.

The RCSI Art Award Committee includes Professor John Hyland, President, RCSI (Chair); Mick O’Dea, President, RHA; Hugh Linehan, Arts & Culture Editor, The Irish Times; Patrick T. Murphy, Director, RHA; Professor Clive Lee, Professor of Anatomy, RCSI & RHA; Dr Abdul Bulbulia, Alumnus, RCSI; and Louise Loughran, Head of Communications, RCSI.

For further information on the RHA Annual Exhibition, including opening hours, visit rhagallery.ie.

RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.