The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition has been rejuvenated this year by architect Farshid Moussavi. Instead of cramming the architecture exhibits into one room, Moussavi has integrated them throughout the 13 galleries. This move gives everything room to breathe and provides drama.
The exhibition flows easily with its understated backdrop of pale walls. The color is focused in the art, and many academicians anchor their displays with it. Flashes of red bind together works in the Lecture Room, while pops of pink ping across Gallery VII.
Rejuvenating the Summer Exhibition
Politics come into the show only lightly through painted slogan T-shirts, a tiny postage stamp featuring Diane Abbott, and drawings of military flypasts. Among the 1,729 works, there’s the usual array of flora and fauna.
Hilary Bartholomew’s “Canis Major” is a standout, though Zatorski + Zatorski’s 101 gilded rats may need a trigger warning for some. In Moussavi’s monochrome Central Hall, texture unites the works. Helen Sear’s huge photographic print “Anatomy of a Tree” seems to reflect the fluffy ostrich feathers in Alice Channer’s witty central hanging sculpture.
Ryan Gander’s massive inflatable black ball looms cheerfully, wedged into a doorway and printed with the question, “When do you know you’re right?”
Moussavi has definitely got it right this time. The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition runs from June 17 to August 17.
