Eight works to know from Summer Exhibition 2023

Published on 4 May 2023

Ahead of the opening of this year's Summer Exhibition, find out more about eight works which will be featured in the show.

Mercurial by Sheila Hicks

The Paris-based sculptor has made a career out of weaving the rainbow, here leaving her yarn in a freefall of colour.

Sheila Hicks, Mercurial — Linen, wood, 2 panels. 120 x 190 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Alison Jacques

Rest in Pieces, or the Squatters... by Ryan Gander RA

Roadkill or robot? Gander’s monument to the moggie reveals the sculptor’s trickster humour.

Ryan Gander RA, Rest in Pieces, or the Squatters (Charlie Meet Hammons' Untitled (Night Train) (1989) — Wood, latex, resin, synthetic fur, paint, animatronics. 55.9 x 10.2 x 35.6 cm
© Ryan Gander; Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery. Photograph by George Darrell

Moonlight Towers by Jonah Luswata

The designer’s handmade obelisk recalls the earliest streetlamps, gaslit towers used by the Victorians to emulate the moon.

Jonah Luswata, Moonlight Towers — American red oak. 250 x 166.4 x 54 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Birthing Ball by Caroline Walker

Walker’s abiding subject is the everyday lives of women, with motherhood the focus of this and other recent oils.

Caroline Walker, Birthing Ball — Oil on linen. 190 x 142 cm
© Caroline Walker. Courtesy of the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; GRIMM Gallery and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh. Photo by Peter Mallet

Into You by Sadie Clayton

Clayton’s signature material is copper, whether folded into this sculpture of alluring reflective sheen or elsewhere gracing the human body as wearable art.

Sadie Clayton, Into You — Mirrored copper metal. 7.5 x 18 x 11 cm
Courtesy of the artist

The Omicron Variations by Kara Walker Hon RA

Walker’s monumental-scale ink drawing conjures an enigmatic moonlit scene, whose central act (given the work’s title) may be one of healing.

Kara Walker Hon RA, The Omicron Variations — Ink on paper. 183.7 x 199.4 cm
© Kara Walker. Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co

Outfit No. 4 by Lisa Milroy RA

An air of tight-lipped mystery pervades Milroy’s depiction of clothes, laid out as if clues in an inspection, but leading to no end.

Lisa Milroy RA, Outfit No. 4 — Oil on canvas, collage. 175 x 144 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Five Stone Wind (for John Cage) by Edmund De Waal

De Waal pays tribute to a Cage score which called for the use of clay drums, a material link between the British potter and his minimalist forebear.

Edmund de Waal, Five Stone Wind (for John Cage) — Porcelain, silver, aluminum, and glass. 74.5 x 100 x 18.5 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Summer Exhibition 2023

The world’s largest open submission exhibition is back, featuring work in every medium imaginable.

This year, celebrated British painter David Remfry RA takes the reins as exhibition co-ordinator. Remfry’s Summer Exhibition will explore the theme Only Connect, taken from the famous quote in Howards End by E.M. Forster.

Book now