Summer Exhibition 2015
8 June - 16 August 2015
Main Galleries, Burlington House
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
From 6 July to 14 September 2015, the main lift in Burlington House will be unavailable for use due to repair work. Alternative and level accessible routes will be made available.
Plan your visit.
£13.50 (without donation £12). Concessions available. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free. FINAL DAYS: If online tickets are unavailable for your chosen timeslot, you can buy tickets in person at the RA. Please note that queues may form at peak times.
Friends of the RA go free
Get ready to discover your new favourite artist as we head into a summer of colour at the RA. From painting to installation art, you'll find it all at the Summer Exhibition.
“The Summer Exhibition has never looked so impressive"; – The Times
"A bastion of the English cultural summer" – The Telegraph
"It's the best Summer Exhibition I have seen" – Evening Standard
For 247 years, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has offered a snapshot of contemporary art – and this year's exhibition is a riot of colour, variety and discovery with over 1,100 works spilling out from our galleries.
In the courtyard, visitors are confronted by a towering formation of steel 'clouds', created by Royal Academician Conrad Shawcross, before Jim Lambie’s kaleidoscopic stairs lead up to the Main Galleries.
This year, the exhibition is coordinated by Michael Craig-Martin RA – a leading artist of his generation and the teacher who nurtured the talents of Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. His distinctive creative vision has resulted in room after room bursting with variety, colour and remarkable new work by leading and emerging artists – all handpicked from over 12,000 entries.
The Summer Exhibition is the world’s oldest open-submission exhibition: its earliest exhibitors included the likes of Reynolds, Constable and Turner. With many works in the exhibition on sale, the show also gives you a chance to own some original art while supporting the historic Royal Academy schools; artwork sales help us to continue the free tuition that we have offered for nearly 250 years.
With everything from painting, printmaking and sculpture through to installation, photography and film, this is a show unlike any other. We hope you’ll join us for a vibrant summer of colour.
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
From 6 July to 14 September 2015, the main lift in Burlington House will be unavailable for use due to repair work. Alternative and level accessible routes will be made available.
Plan your visit.
£13.50 (without donation £12). Concessions available. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free. FINAL DAYS: If online tickets are unavailable for your chosen timeslot, you can buy tickets in person at the RA. Please note that queues may form at peak times.
Friends of the RA go free
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Reviews
Summer Exhibition Explorer
For the first time this year, the Summer Exhibition’s list of works is available online. You now have access to browse, collect and share your favourites on social media, or enjoy online guided tours with figures from across the arts, including a number of Royal Academicians – the artists who curate the exhibition.
An introduction to the Summer Exhibition 2015
Summer Exhibition 2015 coordinator Michael Craig-Martin RA gives a short introduction to this year's exhibition.
What our visitors are saying about the Summer Exhibition 2015
For 247 years, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has offered a snapshot of contemporary art – and this year’s exhibition is a riot of colour, variety and discovery with over 1,100 works spilling out from our galleries. We asked visitors to the gallery what they thought of the exhibition.
Jim Lambie's ZOBOP
Continuing his ongoing series of floor-based installations, Jim Lambie has responded to the architecture of our neo-classical staircase with this intricate installation, made from hundreds of pieces of coloured vinyl tape. Here's how it was put together.
The making of 'The Dappled Light of the Sun' by Conrad Shawcross RA
Consisting of five steel "clouds", this new immersive work by Royal Academician Conrad Shawcross inhabits the courtyard’s central space during the Summer Exhibition. Standing at over six metres high and weighing five tonnes each, the branching forms are made up of thousands of tetrahedrons. We visited the artist as he set about creating them.
Installing the Summer Exhibition
In this time-lapse video, we capture how more than 1,100 works were brought together to create this year's exhibition.
Related articles
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25 August 2015
Richard E Grant at the Summer Exhibition 2015
4 August 2015
Gallery
Michael Craig-Martin RA maintains that "magenta enhances the colours and form" of the individual works selected to hang in Gallery III
Included in Gallery VIII is a memorial display to the late William Bowyer RA
Bill Woodrow RA and Alison Wilding RA placed the artworks in this gallery, focusing on sculpture
The painter David Remfry RA initially assumed that this gallery would contain mainly figurative works, but abstract paintings have found a place here too
Mimmo Paladino Hon RA's bronze sculpture sits in the centre of Gallery V, in which many of the print works are hung
Matthew Darbyshire’s figure Doryphoros is placed in the centre of the Wohl Central Hall
This work, by Anish Kapoor RA, is placed in the centre of Gallery VI, hung by Michael Craig-Martin RA
This year, the Architecture Gallery in the Large Weston Room is themed ‘Inventive Landscape’
In the Wohl Central Hall, the eye is immediately drawn towards Andrew Lord's glazed ceramic sculptures, In Electric Light, in the Studio (Gauguin)
In the hanging of Gallery II, Jock McFadyen RA broadly interpreted the theme of 'radical landscape'
This gallery features work by many Academicians, including Allen Jones's Arabesque/ One for the Road (centre) and Lisa Milroy RA's One-to-One (right)
The Summer Exhibition is about artists' generosity and democracy. No other gallery in the world tries to do what the RA does - open its doors to everyone who thinks of themselves as an artist, to have their work judged by their peers.
Bob and Roberta Smith RA
Talks and tours
Get more out of the exhibition
Exhibition tours
45 minutes
Free with an exhibition ticket, no booking required.
Every Friday 7pm (12 June – 7 August)
Family Tours 2.30pm, Sunday (throughout July)
Can't make it to the RA? Try one of our online tours
Including an eclectic mix of painting, sculpture and installation, the iconoclastic artist captures the essence of the show in these five picks.
The designer and businesswoman’s choices from the Summer Exhibition include Royal Academicians Cornelia Parker, David Nash and Gary Hume.
Anselm Kiefer, Tracey Emin and Tom Phillips all catch the eye of novelist and broadcaster Sebastian Faulks.
Shop
Bringing together over 50 posters that celebrate 100 years of contemporary visual culture, this book is a fitting tribute to the exhibition that has launched the careers of many artists as well as an absorbing journey through changes in poster design and typography.
This bold print features Fragment Coffee Cup by Michael Craig-Martin, curator of this year's Summer Exhibition.
Take home the Summer Exhibition 2015 catalogue as a memento of your favourite works.
Conrad Shawcross RA
Limited edition works
This limited edition sculpture entitled Seed (The Dappled Light of the Sun) 2015 by Conrad Shawcross RA relates strongly to the work The Dappled Light of the Sun, currently installed in the Annenberg Courtyard at the RA.
A beautifully illustrated limited edition book has also been produced, which includes working drawings and structural diagrams and text by architect Patrick Sykes.
The Summer Exhibition 2015 selection and hanging committee
The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2015 will be coordinated by the leading British artist and influential teacher, Michael Craig-Martin RA. The hanging committee for the Summer Exhibition includes Royal Academicians Norman Ackroyd, Olwyn Bowey, Gus Cummins, Jock McFadyen, David Remfry, Mick Rooney, Alison Wilding and Bill Woodrow. The architecture room will be curated by Ian Ritchie RA.
Michael Craig-Martin grew up and was educated in the United States but lives and works in London. His work, which includes painting, printmaking, installations projections and drawing, depicts commonplace objects.
Craig-Martin is an influential teacher. His former students include many of those artists who made such a significant impact on the art scene in the 1990s, including Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, and fellow Academicians Lisa Milroy, Gary Hume and Fiona Rae.
Special offers
To celebrate this colourful annual exhibition, the Royal Academy of Arts and Peyton and Byrne are offering afternoon tea for two at the Keeper’s House.
The Royal Academy of Arts and Peyton and Byrne have teamed up to offer you a ticket to the exhibition and the delicious ‘Once upon a time in Academy’ cocktail for just £18.50.
The Royal Academy of Arts and Peyton and Byrne are offering late lunch and a ticket to the Summer Exhibition in the Keeper’s House with a free glass of bubbly.
Win an exclusive luxury weekend in London
To celebrate the Summer Exhibition, the Royal Academy of Arts and Reiss have teamed up to offer you the chance to win a fabulous VIP weekend in London for one winner plus guest.
The prize includes:
• A one-night luxury stay at The Soho Hotel
• Train travel courtesy of National Rail
• Exclusive private tour of the exhibition with an RA expert
• Reiss personal styling appointment