Viewing The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition’s dazzling array of more than 1200 artworks

The Summer Exhibition is a unique event: every Royal Academicians sift through thousands of entries to select 1,200 works for display in a mammoth and meandering show, where hierarchies between famous and anonymous are dissolved. And all the works are for sale, too – from as little as £250.

An unbroken annual tradition since 1769, the Summer Exhibition takes a loose theme and is led by an RA coordinator – Ann Christopher for 2024 – alongside a committee of RA artists and architects, this year including Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Assemble, and Hurvin Anderson. The theme for this year is ‘making space’, taken literally in some cases, and moving into the metaphorical for others.

The Summer Exhibition always provokes the critics but it is a much loved tradition, and anticipated moment for many gallery goers, the chance to truly see everything people are making art about, not only those educated in institutions like the RA itself. A welcome break from the curatorial preciousness of most programming, whether you love it or loathe it, there is always something interesting on show and the potential to discover something new, too. Long may it continue!