Jemma Appleby has won the Royal Academy of Arts’ £35,000 Charles Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work in the Summer Exhibition 2026.
Appleby received the exhibition’s top prize for #1300615, currently on view in Gallery VII. The prestigious award is one of the most significant art prizes in the UK and has been presented annually since 1978.
The Royal Academy has also announced the full list of prize winners across painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, with more than £70,000 awarded to artists exhibiting in this year’s Summer Exhibition.
Lisa Wright received the £10,000 AXA Art Prize UK for In the Night Garden, awarded for an outstanding work of figurative art, while Andrew Sabin won the £10,000 Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture for Big Henge.
Harriette Lloyd received the £5,000 British Institution Fund Award for Students for Through, an award recognising excellence across disciplines from painting to architecture.
The Hugh Casson Drawing Prize was shared between three artists. John Maine RA received the top award of £3,000 for Monument 3, with £1,000 prizes going to Emma Cousin for Teaching/Learning From Each Other and Brian Dawn Chalkley for Ursula’s Garden.
Annie Whiles won the £5,000 Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist for The Listening Thing, while Jiyoung Pyo received the £5,000 Maire Ragnhild Hollingsworth Prize for Oil Painting for Bittersweet.
The £5,000 Viking Prize for Print went to Olivia Wells for Pulmo 8.
The Charles Wollaston Award was established in 1978 with a donation from lecturer and long-standing Royal Academy supporter Charles Wollaston. Following his death in 1992, a substantial bequest enabled the RA to endow the £35,000 prize in perpetuity.
The Summer Exhibition has taken place every year without interruption since 1769 and remains the world’s largest open-submission contemporary art exhibition. Bringing together emerging and established artists across painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture and film, the annual exhibition also raises funds for the RA Schools, which offers a free three-year postgraduate programme.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, – 23rd August 2026, Royal Academy of Arts
