This is our largest gallery (and probably the single most challenging space in the Summer Exhibition – not that this deterred Jock McFadyen RA, who curated it). He mixed painting with photography and devised spaces where abstraction and figuration appear side by side.

Each wall has been anchored around a large work, whether desolate wastelands and housing blocks, or a ghostly warship floating on the sea.

A banner emblazoned with “We are all immigrant scum” might be the first thing you notice as you pass into Gallery I, but it’s by no means the only work challenging our understanding of identity, immigration and borders. Jane and Louise Wilson RA reflect on marginalised groups, split identities, ecological threats and feminism, opting for works that create a dialogue with each other.

But the ecological theme doesn’t end at the Large Weston Room. As Barbara Rae RA, Curator of Gallery IV told us; “My selection for the gallery was inspired by the four trips I made to the Arctic where I encountered the effects of global warming and human pollution firsthand.

“I saw how the growing availability of non-native foods and hardware in the Arctic creates problems around disposal. This gallery, subsequently, takes a broad look at the way the human race is enabling the destruction of the planet.”

Over in Gallery VI, Timothy Hyman RA wanted to make drawing a focus, “as it’s a medium that’s been absent from previous Summer Exhibitions,” he told us.

But his room also took shape intuitively: “I suddenly realised that some little corner had assembled figures with both arms raised, and above them, more figures with both arms lowered. To my surprise I found this play of images enormously enjoyable.”

“I also love that newly-exhibiting young artists, some of them completely unknown to me, could jostle with established figures in their seventies, eighties and even nineties,” Hyman adds. “I gave prominence to the eight-foot Wishing Tree by the 79-year-old Peter Darach, but across the arch was 30-year-old Melissa Kime’s beautiful swimming-pool fantasy of boys and testicles. I also pay tribute to my 96-year-old mentor, Jeffery Camp, as well as several former students whose work I’ve come to admire.”

Gallery VIII takes an abstract approach. As the curator, Bob and Roberta Smith RA, explained: “some people think abstract art isn’t about the subject; they think it’s about form. Yet so much of the abstract work submitted this year was about an ineffable world of spatial and colour relationships defined, on one hand by maths, and on the other by the cosmos.

"I invited a number of artists who explore art’s relationship with science, like Haroon Mirza, whose work hacks into technology. As I pored over the submissions, this idea of a cosmic room took hold. I also looked at artworks that are not abstract but refer to God – Chinwe Ibe Russell’s painting charts the journey of her mother who was taught by nuns in Nigeria.”

Can he pick a favourite?

“I’ve fallen in love with all the works in Gallery VIII but if I’m pressed, I’d direct you to two quiet monochrome works by Barbara Walker. Barbara points out how, in the history of Western art, black people populate Old Master paintings; they are there – but rarely in positions of power. One more: a full-blown masterpiece and the centrepiece of Gallery VIII is a work by Frank Bowling who, along with Lubaina Himid and Chris Ofili, is one of our greatest living artists.”

Why did he paint one wall red? “Because red is cosmic, dude!”

In the Lecture Room, Stephen Chambers RA brought together a variety of work which he ties together through subtle colour features. He plays freely with his selection, anchoring the space with his own innovative hanging techniques – such as the diagonal dialogue he creates between Olwyn Bowey RA’s two works which are hung at the same level in opposite corners.