The Royal Academy has announced the 256th Summer Exhibition, a unique celebration of contemporary art and architecture, providing a vital platform and support for the artistic community. British sculptor Ann Christopher RA has co-ordinated this year’s Summer Exhibition and with the Summer Exhibition Committee, will explore the idea of making space. For the Summer Exhibition 2024,
I plan to explore the idea of making space, whether giving space or taking space. This can be interpreted in various ways: to make space can mean openness – making space for something or someone, also making space between things. It is my belief that the spaces in between
Ann Christopher RA
are as important as whatever those spaces separate.
Works by invited artists this year will include Ackroyd & Harvey, Vivien Blackett, Diana Copperwhite, Andrew Pierre Hart, Permindar Kaur, Radhika Khimji, Kathy Prendergast, Rachel Whiteread and Charmaine Watkiss. In addition to the large number of public submissions, Royal Academicians and
Honorary Academicians will be showing works, including Ron Arad, Frank Bowling, Michael Craig Martin, Anselm Kiefer, Conrad Shawcross, Clare Woods and Rose Wylie. There will also be memorials to the Royal Academicians Michael Hopkins, Sonia Lawson, Mick Moon and Joe Tilson.
In the courtyard will be a monumental textile sculpture by British artist Nicola Turner, which is made of
found organic matter, including horsehair and wool. The work explores the intersection between life and
death and will interact closely with the statue of the RA’s founding President, Sir Joshua Reynolds.
The Architecture rooms will be curated by Assemble RA, who said,
Spaces for making form a critical part of our creative economy and yet these spaces are increasingly pushed out of cities. Assemble invited contributions that reflect on spaces for making: workspaces, studio spaces, manufacturing spaces, industrial spaces, assembly spaces. We want to celebrate the messiness and exploration these places of production entail, while embracing failure and making room for unconventional and enterprising ways we find to continue making together. We welcomed submissions that focus and reflect on making as process, unfinished works, material samples, industrial prototypes, working models, workspace artefacts and agricultural elements. Making space is a complex, multifaceted and collaborative process and we strongly encouraged collectives and individuals or organisations outside of the architecture and art world to contribute.
Architects will include Elsie Owusu and Nigel Coates exhibiting for the first time as Royal Academicians, as well as some specially invited creative practices such as Structure Workshop and the art collective, Cooking Sections.
Summer Exhibition 2024 Committee Royal Academicians: Ann Christopher, Hurvin Anderson, Assemble, Anne Desmet, Hughie O’Donoghue, Cornelia Parker & Veronica Ryan
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024, 18th June – 18th August 2024, royalacademy.org.uk
Summer Exhibition 2024 online Many of the works in the Summer Exhibition 2024 will be available to browse and buy online through the Summer Exhibition Explorer which will be live to the public from Tuesday 18 June 2024.
Summer Exhibition Prizes 2024 Each year the Royal Academy of Arts presents prizes for outstanding works in the Summer Exhibition. The prestigious £35,000 Charles Wollaston Award, one of the most significant art prizes in the country, will be presented to the ‘most distinguished work’ in the exhibition. Prizes will be announced in due course.
History of the Summer Exhibition
One of the founding principles of the Royal Academy of Arts was to “mount an annual exhibition open
to all artists of distinguished merit” to finance the training of young artists in the Royal Academy Schools.
The Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show which has taken
place every year without interruption since 1769. It provides a unique platform for emerging and
established artists to showcase their works to an international audience, comprising a range of media
from painting and printmaking to photography, sculpture, architecture and film. Royal Academicians are
automatically entitled to submit up to six works to the Summer Exhibition and the rest of the exhibition
features work by those invited by the committee and external entrants.
The members of the Summer Exhibition Committee serve in rotation, ensuring that every year the
exhibition has a distinctive character, with each Royal Academician responsible for a particular gallery
space. Works from all over the world are judged democratically on merit and the final selection is made
during the eight-day hang within the galleries. The majority of works will be for sale, offering visitors an
opportunity to purchase original work. Funds raised support the exhibiting artists, the postgraduate
students studying in the RA Schools and the work of the Royal Academy.
