The Wick List

Viewing The Summer Exhibition 2026

The art of summer.

The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition returns, as it has every year since 1769, with its glorious annual collision of artists, architects, amateurs, household names, Royal Academicians and maybe even a surprise celebrity. A must see fixture of British summer, this year’s edition brings to life the theme of Interconnectedness, coordinated by Ryan Gander OBE (remember those amazing black balls last year?).

Each room, filled with painting, sculpture and sketch, explores chance encounters which shape our lives and work. To get there your journey starts crossing the iconic Annenberg Courtyard, which this year is lit up with an Ugo Rondinone rainbow celebrating the art of our lives, ’The Song Is You’.

Expect the unexpected with connections between works, however unconventional or abstract. As ever, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, film and digital art will appear together, selected from thousands of submissions and arranged across the RA’s Main Galleries.

Most of these works are for sale, with prices that can range from wildly aspirational to surprisingly accessible, making the exhibition as much about collecting as looking. With the addition of a gin bar to sip as you explore, it’s no doubt the Culturally Curious will come home with a new addition for their wall or home. Happy hunting!

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The Wick Culture - Viewing The Summer Exhibition 2026
The Wick List

Viewing Yinka Ilori: Joy Through Resistance, He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best

The Wick Culture - Image credit: Laura Coulson
The Wick List

Viewing Harry Styles' Meltdown Festival

The Wick Culture - Luke Jerram, Helios at Bath Assembly Rooms, 2025. National Trust. Images copyright Luke Jerram. Photography by James Dobson
The Wick List

Viewing The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial

The Wick Culture - Marilyn Monroe, Mount Sinai, Long Island, 1955 by Eve Arnold
The Wick List

Viewing Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait

The Wick Culture - Serpentine Pavilion 2026 a serpentine, designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, LANZA atelier. Design render, aerial view. © LANZA atelier. Courtesy Serpentine
The Wick List

Viewing Serpentine Pavilion 2026: a serpentine

The Wick Culture - Children of Graceland (project). Credit: Hayley Louisa Brown
The Wick List

Viewing HOLY POP!