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It looks like London has succumbed to its annual bout of art measles, because the Royal Academy is covered in red dots. It’s not really an infectious disease, but instead a sign that the Summer Exhibition is back, and all those little red stickers mean the works on the wall are selling.
The Summer Exhibition, an annual open call show that allows anyone to submit work for selection, gives amateur artists a shot at relative stardom in rooms curated by big time Academicians. It’s an opportunity to see your neighbour’s watercolours hung next to a Rose Wylie painting, if they pass the muster.
This year’s edition, as ever, has a lot of good, and a lot of bad. There’s an almost staggering amount of miserably sombre monochrome landscape painting, and genuinely endless images of pylons and gas holders. In better news, I only counted four works by Sir Michael Craig-Martin, which, while still four too many, is still about a quarter of the amount usually included.
The best room is curated by the painter Hurvin Anderson; he seems to have nabbed almost all the joy, talent and ideas submitted, and the whole space is genuinely excellent. Veronica Ryan’s second room, filled with sculptures and oddities, is great too.
But as usual, the most important thing with the Summer Exhibition is that it’s fun, and this year is no exception, despite all the pylons and grey landscapes.
Here are our 10 favourite artworks at the Summer Exhibition
Frank Bowling, ‘Bushlite 1/2/3’
Bowling is one of the most important painters working today, but it’s so unusual, and so intimate, to see him working on such a small scale. These three are gorgeous, textured, clever little paintings.
Harriet Porter, ‘The Optimist’
I picked Porter’s work last year and I will continue to do so every time she’s in this show. Her small still lifes of silver pots are so simple, but so haunting and quiet and precise. They’re these ghostly, almost mournful acts of visual meditation and I love them.
Mary O’Connor, ‘Limelight II’
Big fan of the collision of mess and geometric precision in this neat, small work on panel.
Christopher Thompson, ‘Across The River’
Forget lush fields and rolling hills, this is the England we all know: grim, dark, cold, barren. It’s beautifully painted for something so miserable.
Jock McFadyen, ‘Homebase’
McFadyen’s terrifyingly still landscape with glowing Homebase in the background perfectly captures the unease of ceaseless, creeping suburban sprawl.
Poojan Gupta, ‘All Gone (Empty Blister Packs)’
Sara Gregory, ‘Menopause (Almost Full)’/‘Menopause (Almost Empty)’
Tom Waugh, ‘Big Pharma (Empty 2)’
In a room full of clever juxtapositions (curated by Veronica Ryan), this wall of pill-shaped works feels both medical and sculptural, emotional and funny. That so many artists would submit pill-shaped art, and all say different things with it, is one of things that makes the Summer Exhibition so interesting.
Giuseppe Bulzis, ‘Mind State’
Ceramics are one of the main attractions at this year’s Summer Exhibition, and Bulzis’ globular, fluid blob-form is one of the best.
Fiona Chaney, ‘Drawing On Steel’
Heavy metal minimalism? Yes please. Chaney’s rusted sheet of marked metal is like a post-apocalyptic heavily industrial Rothko.
James Capper, ‘Nippers’
These James Capper works aren’t for sale, which is a shame because I’m sure they’d be a snip. Get it? This is aggressive, threatening art machinery for an aggressive threatening world.
Peter Uka, ‘Uncle Johnbull’
Cool, aloof and very well painted; Uka’s work toys with ideas of memory and cultural-nostalgia to create one of the most memorable paintings in the exhibition.
The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2024, Jun 18-Aug 18. £22. More details here.
Want more art? Here are the top 10 exhibitions in London.
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