The weight of 152 years hangs heavily around the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (the RGI).

At the time of its inception, Britain's bitter battles in the Crimea and further afield were largely over, but the American civil war was in full flight. Lincoln proclaimed all slaves free while, in Prussia, Otto von Bismarck was made prime minister.

In the art world, international exhibitions and fairs offered nations the opportunity to show off artistic, technical and scientific prowess. Glasgow, the second city of the empire, was a thriving centre of commerce, industry and culture. Taking a lead from the trend for group exhibitions, a small set of city businessmen and artists formed a committee, agreed a budget of £500 and persuaded Glasgow Corporation to hire the Corporation Galleries (now the McLellan Galleries) in Sauchiehall Street. The Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts was born.

Its first exhibition was a success, with 39,099 visitors pouring through the door, many on a "working men's ticket". Fast forward 152 years, and the RGI has returned to the McLellan Galleries, from which it was displaced in 2003 and removed to the nearby Mitchell Library during the refurbishment of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.

Its space was used to house exhibits during the work, but time lapsed and RGI remained left out of the family home, which is owned by Glasgow City Council but has lain empty for the best part of 10 years. Now, thanks to a tenacious committee and an injection of £100,000 from RGI, it's back at the McLellan, and for the last three weeks, a steady stream of art lovers has been crossing the threshold and gawping at the building's Victorian magnificence.

They have also been gazing (for free) at the salon-style hang of over 500 paintings, original prints, sculpture and, for the first time, photography. It's billed as Scotland's largest open submission exhibition. The way it works is that the 54 elected RGIs (an award made to artists for artistic merit) can submit up to three artworks. On top of this, all-comers can submit work which will be considered for inclusion by a selection committee. This year around 2000 submissions were received. All work is for sale.

I've been to see the exhibition twice, and on both occasions have been intrigued by the way the artworks have been arranged, jigsaw-like, on the walls. An epic wall of small works has prompted mixed reactions. I loved it; it's like a work of art in itself. In the visitors' book, one person writes: "In the finest gallery in Glasgow - at last the thrill of seeing work in perfect space, light and scale." Another to-the-point critic says: "Paintings! Some good. Some atrocious." This is a bit harsh. In the words of Alan Bennett, when he was curating an exhibition at the National Gallery in London: "You don't have to like it all."

Alongside more established names, I recognised several from recent degree shows. I recall Catherine Cameron's large shimmering monochrome prints from Glasgow School of Art degree show earlier this year. Another fairly recent GSA graduate, Robin Leishman, has presented work which is quietly memorable. His long, tall painting of a soldier in a gas mask is confident, even though there are patches unfinished. It just works.

Leishman and Jonny Lyons, whose work I saw at this year's Duncan of Jordanstone degree show in Dundee, share the Glasgow Art Club Award. Their work has a common theme of trying to reimagine the world of boys' toys and games for adulthood. On a similar theme, I liked Tom McKendrick's tender portrait of a wheelchair-bound Corporal James Smith very much. It's almost invidious to pick out individual artists, but many linger in the memory. The work of former RGI convenor Simon Laurie is shifting direction into figurative "still lifes" which have a hint of the spiritual about them, while Ruth Nicol's big gallus Glasgow from Riverside Museum works a treat in this setting.

Another favourite is the late George Wyllie's Five-A-Side. The players look as if they are sizing up the artwork, notably a huge colourful Barbara Rae painting at one end of the gallery. As these boys would no doubt say if they could talk, RGI is a game of two halves. It's good to be home again...

Royal Glasgow Institute 152nd Annual Exhibition, McLellan Galleries, 270 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (www.royalglasgowinstitute.org) until Dec 8