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Following last year’s record-breaking 250th Summer Exhibition, our annual celebration of art and creativity continues in 2019.
Run without interruption since 1769, the Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission art show and brings together art in all mediums – prints and paintings, film, photography, sculpture, architectural works and more – by leading artists, Royal Academicians and household names as well as new and emerging talent.
This year, acclaimed British painter Jock McFadyen RA takes the mantle from Grayson Perry to co-ordinate the 251st Summer Exhibition. Over 1,500 works are on display, most of them for the first time. Highlights include an animal-themed ‘menagerie’ in the Central Hall, with works by artists including Polly Morgan, Charles Avery, Banksy and Mat Collishaw. Artist sisters Jane and Louise Wilson RA have curated two galleries, one of which showcases work exploring light and time. Further artists exhibiting include Jeremy Deller, Marcus Harvey, Tracey Emin RA, Frank Bowling RA, Antony Gormley RA and Honorary Academicians Anselm Kiefer, James Turrell and Wim Wenders.
Outside the galleries, international artist Thomas Houseago has taken over the RA’s courtyard with a group of large-scale sculptural works, and the exhibition spills out into nearby Bond Street with a colourful installation of flags featuring work by Michael Craig-Martin RA.
As always, most of the artworks are for sale with proceeds helping to fund the Academy’s non-profit-making activities, including educating the next generation of artists in the RA Schools.
Daily 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
£18 (without donation £16). Concessions available. Under-16s go free with a fee-paying adult. Free for Friends of the RA with no booking required.
Main Galleries and The Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts
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Lions, tigers and bears – the 251st Summer Exhibition is brimming with animals but it also features limited-edition prints, lithographs, watercolours and etchings that you can buy online.
Browse and buy any of the 1,500 works in the show or explore one of our hand-picked selections.
More than 1,500 works across over 3,000 square metres… step inside the RA’s Main Galleries for a quick zip around the Summer Exhibition 2019.
This year, works are also on display outside our Burlington Gardens entrance and in the Wohl Entrance Hall, the Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery and the Annenberg Courtyard.
Children under 16 go free to all our exhibitions, and there’s plenty to see and do once they’re here. If you’re visiting the Summer Exhibition with young children, pick up an Art Detective guide and the door so you can quiz, draw, think and quest your way around the show.
This June, the Summer Exhibition will once again spill out onto the streets of London’s West End to celebrate the rich heritage of Art in Mayfair.
Royal Academician, Sir Michael Craig-Martin, will take over Bond Street with an installation of his artwork on flags. Pop-up activity and art installations will also appear in the windows of world-renowned fashion and fine jewellery stores. Last year saw brands like Louis Vuitton, Fenwick of Bond Street, Hermès, Victoria Beckham, IWC, Longchamp, Jimmy Choo, Jaeger Le-Coultre, Amanda Wakeley, Montblanc, TODS and Temperley London coming together to celebrate the RA and the rich heritage of Art in Mayfair.
Radio broadcaster, TV presenter, long-time art collector, and Royal Academy trustee Clara Amfo popped into the 2022 Summer Exhibition to share her top tips on art buying for any taste and budget.
Alongside this year’s Summer Exhibition, you can also find several free displays across our buildings – each showcasing artworks ready to bring home. Here are three highlights, chosen by print enthusiasts.
Meet some of the artists from this year’s show and find out more about their work and their feelings on the theme of Climate.
From frenemy feuds to a bomb through the roof, the storylines of the Summer Exhibition could make a TV drama – so no wonder it’s often featured on screen. Here are just a few of our favourite episodes…
An invitation to artists everywhere, a story that goes back to Turner – and a top secret tea recipe. Here’s what you need to know about a weird and wonderful art tradition that’s over 250-years-old.
There are over 1,000 works in the Summer Exhibition – and most of them are for sale. So how do you choose? Here are our top tips for buying your first pieces of original art.
Annette Fernando – a first-time exhibitor at the Summer Exhibition – talks us through her work, ‘Stop being so damn understanding’ which is so intricate, it’s often mistaken for a photo.
Yinka Shonibare RA invited the renowned Brixton-based reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson to bring his powerful words to the Summer Exhibition. Caleb Azumah Nelson sits down with him to discuss the poetry of resistance.
This year, Yinka Shonibare RA is putting marginalised voices at the heart of the Summer Exhibition. Here, Kadish Morris explores the vision and art for this year’s show.
Summer Exhibition coordinator Yinka Shonibare RA explains his vision for this year’s show
Summer Exhibition co-ordinator Yinka Shonibare explains how he’s “reclaiming magic” in this year’s show.
Join coordinators Jane and Louise Wilson RA as they introduce the 252nd Summer Exhibition and discuss the challenges of putting it all together during a pandemic.
For the first time in its 252-year history, the Summer Exhibition will fall in winter. Amy Sherlock speaks to this year’s co-ordinators, film and photography duo Jane and Louise Wilson RA, who are steering the show into new waters.
“There’s an experience that art can offer which is this strange combination of activating the eyes, the mind, the body and a kind of emotional spectrum.”
Printmaker, painter and sculptor Joe Tilson RA has won the 2019 Charles Wollaston award for the “most distinguished work” in the Summer Exhibition.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the art to see in this year’s Summer Exhibition? Here’s some guidance from poet and art critic Kelly Grovier, who met with the show’s coordinator to discuss its themes before selecting his own standout works to see.
Join presenter and fashion designer Alexa Chung for a (very) private view of this year’s Summer Exhibition, as she picks out some of her favourite works.
As the dancer and Artistic Director of English National Ballet speaks at the RA’s first Festival of Ideas, we caught up with Tamara Rojo to hear about the art that has inspired and intrigued her – from the work she used to prepare for dancing Swan Lake, to the painting she dreams of owning.
How much has the Summer Exhibition changed in 250 years? As the Great Spectacle exhibition looks back at the masterpieces from its history, we head back to 1771 to explore a work that documented the exhibition itself.
To celebrate our 250th birthday, we’re highlighting 250 beautiful, odd and inspiring objects from the RA Collection in 25 themes. In this edition, with the Summer Exhibition on display, and another RA exhibition – The Great Spectacle – looking back at its history, we explore some works in the Collection from Summers gone by.
The Great Spectacle charts 250 years of Summer Exhibitions – including 1914, when Suffragette Mary Wood attacked a John Singer Sargent portrait with a meat cleaver. We delve into the Royal Academy’s archive to find out how the Academy, and the public, reacted.
The Summer Exhibition has filled the RA’s galleries every year since 1769 – it’s been a witness (and a player) in many of British art history’s biggest moments. Jenny Uglow takes a look at the art that’s caused drama, changes, protests and celebration over the past quarter millennium.
What’s it like to put together the Summer Exhibition? We spoke to this year’s coordinator, Grayson Perry RA, and his band of fellow artists in charge of selecting and hanging the world’s largest open-submission art show.
As part of our season exploring artists’ studios, we asked the artists of the 2017 Summer Exhibition – from Royal Academicians to first-time exhibitors – to give us a peep inside their working space, and to share their secrets for a successful studio practice.
Filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien wins the prestigious £25,000 Charles Wollaston award for the “most distinguished work” in the Summer Exhibition.
How are the capital’s artists using their working spaces today? In the spirit of this year’s Summer Exhibition, which is encouraging artists who have not shown before at the RA, Skye Sherwin visits first-time exhibitors at work to see what they are bringing to the Academy.
Every year there are around 13,000 public entries to the Summer Exhibition, with about 700 making it through to hang in the galleries. We asked 2016’s selected artists to share their creative secrets.
The official launch of the Summer Exhibition 2016 welcomed some of London’s most celebrated artists and art lovers to Burlington House.
Know your art? Take our quiz of the year and see how you measure up…
A long-time fan of the Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition, actor Richard E Grant takes us on a whistle-stop tour of his favourite works of art in this year’s show.
We asked members of staff to pick their highlights from this year’s A-level Summer Exhibition Online, which showcases the work of the country’s talented young artists and runs parallel to the RA’s Summer Exhibition.
The Royal Academician discusses the way in which his sculptures explore geometry, philosophy, physics and metaphysics.
Celebrated artist and this year’s Summer Exhibition Coordinator, Michael Craig-Martin RA discusses some of the ideas and events that have shaped his achievements as an artist and teacher.
We asked the artists selected for this year’s Summer Exhibition to share their secrets, and tell us their personal rules for making art. Here’s what they said.
The Academician has spent her career studying and promoting the threatened art of Japanese woodblock printing. Here, she tells us about her new prints, commissioned for the Summer Exhibition.
Rose Wylie RA announced as winner of the Charles Wollaston award.
The Summer Exhibition Preview Party is one of the most glamorous events in the London calendar – and a major fundraiser for the RA.
Take a look behind the scenes at the making of ‘The Dappled Light of the Sun’.
As Michael Craig-Martin RA co-ordinates this year’s Summer Exhibition, the Curator and Head of the RA Schools Eliza Bonham Carter discovers in a new book what makes this leading artist and teacher tick.
RA Magazine’s Guest Editor David Chipperfield RA meets Conrad Shawcross RA in Green Park to talk trees and tetrahedrons, ahead of the sculptor’s spectacular work that greets visitors to the Summer Exhibition.
Our Head of Learning writes about the creative partnership between the Royal Academy and top recording artist Usher.
In an extract from his new book, the Royal Academician who nurtured talents including Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst offers his insights into how to get on in art and the art world.
As the exhibition draws to a close, we asked three RA members of staff to select their highlight.
We’ve challenged three guest speakers to choose the five works in this year’s Summer Exhibition that intrigue them the most. Fashion historian and DJ Amber Jane Butchart guides us through her favourite works.
We’ve challenged three guest speakers to choose the five works in this year’s Summer Exhibition that intrigue them the most. BBC’s Arts Editor Will Gompertz attempts to narrow down his top picks from the plethora of works on display.
Summer holiday fun for tiny Turners and kid Constables.
We’ve challenged three guest speakers to choose the five works in this year’s Summer Exhibition that intrigue them the most. Curator Susie Allen guides us through her picks, which all relate to the concept of space.
Six of the artists from this year’s Summer Exhibitions share their thoughts on being selected for the first time.
Art now is more popular than it ever has been. We are in an era where art is at the centre of a public conversation about who we are, and where we want to go.
Celebrate the Solstice with the RA. We’ve got blues, burlesque and barnstorming yarns for you at our very special late night event.
Wolfgang Tillmans RA announced as winner of the Charles Wollaston award.
The Summer Exhibition Preview Party is one of the most glamorous events in the London calendar - and a major fundraiser for the RA.
Cornelia Parker RA explains what’s different about this year’s Summer Exhibition and the inspiration behind her ‘Black and White’ themed room.
Celebrating with the artists in this year’s Summer Exhibition.
Can an establishment institution like the Royal Academy be a radical force? As this year’s Summer Exhibition focuses on an influx of newly elected Royal Academicians, Ben Luke puts the question to Members old and new.
In the second of our behind-the-scenes videos about the RA Summer Exhibition 2014, we take a look at the judging process and speak to the exhibition’s coordinator Hughie O‘Donoghue RA.
In the first of our behind-the-scenes videos about the RA Summer Exhibition 2014, we speak to some of the artists submitting their work.
Behind the scenes with this year’s co-ordinators Norman Ackroyd RA and Eva Jiricna RA.
Now in its 244th year, the Summer Exhibition is the world’s biggest open submission show. Co-ordinator and painter Tess Jaray RA explains why she thinks small is beautiful.
Stephen Chambers RA (b. 1960)
Anne Desmet RA (b. 1964)
Timothy Hyman RA (b. 1946)
Jock McFadyen RA (b. 1950)
Hughie O'Donoghue RA (b. 1953)
Barbara Rae RA (b. 1943)
Bob and Roberta Smith RA (b. 1963)
Richard Wilson RA (b. 1953)
Jane and Louise Wilson RA (b. 1967)
Spencer de Grey RA (b. 1944)
Stephen Chambers RA, Portrait of SW, 2013.
Anne Desmet RA, Olympic Shadows, 2011.
Timothy Hyman RA, At Maggie’s: Winter Light, 2012–14.
Jock McFadyen, Tate Moss.
Hughie O'Donoghue RA, Rioba: Il Papa.
Barbara Rae RA, Red Moor.
Bob and Roberta Smith, Art Makes Children Powerful, 2013.
Richard Wilson, Turning the Place Over, 2008.
Jane and Louise Wilson RA, Atomgrad, Nature Abhors a Vacuum.
Spencer de Grey RA, Bridge at Slussen, Stockholm.