Media statement, 23 June 2021

Renowned British artist Yinka Shonibare RA will co-ordinate the 253rd Summer Exhibition in 2021. The Summer Exhibition Committee members are Royal Academicians Tony Bevan, Vanessa Jackson, Mali Morris, Humphrey Ocean, Eva Rothschild, Bob and Roberta Smith and Emma Stibbon. David Adjaye will curate the Architecture Gallery. The committee will be chaired by the President of the Royal Academy, Rebecca Salter.

The Royal Academy of Arts announced today that Vicky Richardson has been appointed Head of Architecture and Heinz Curator. She replaces Kate Goodwin, who is moving on to new opportunities from the role after 17 years.

4 March 2021

6 January 2021

The Royal Academy of Arts announced this evening on Thursday 3 December 2020 at an online presentation, that Dong Mei and Liu Xiaochuan, of BCKJ Architects, an architectural practice from China, have been awarded the 2020 Royal Academy Dorfman Award, honouring an international talent that represents the future of architecture.

The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries

In October 2021, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Light Lines: The Architectural Photographs of Hélène Binet, an intimate unveiling of architecture through the lens of the renowned Swiss-French photographer Hélène Binet. Over the past 30 years, Binet has travelled the world to photograph works by architects including Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid RA, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Daniel Libeskind, Jørn Utzon and Peter Zumthor Hon RA. The exhibition will span Binet’s career, showcasing around 90 images of more than 20 projects by 12 architects.

Clore Learning Centre and online

The Royal Academy of Arts will present the third annual Young Artists’ Summer Show opening in the Clore Learning Centre and online from Tuesday 13 July 2021. The exhibition will display a selection of works by young artists aged 5-19 (key stages 1-5) from the UK and British International Schools, chosen by a panel of judges including Royal Academicians and RA Schools students. This year, over 32,000 entries were received from around 4,000 schools. The exhibition will be curated by Phyllida Barlow RA, who will also sit on the judging panel for the secondary age works.

The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries

In May 2021, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Michael Armitage: Paradise Edict. Born in Kenya in 1984, Michael Armitage graduated from the RA Schools in 2010 and now works between Nairobi and London. In his paintings, Armitage reflects on his experiences in Kenya and on current events, while drawing on contemporary East African art and European art history. Bridging artistic traditions, he looks towards the work of Jak Katarikawe, Meek Gichugu and Chelenge van Rampelberg as well as Titian, Francisco de Goya and Paul Gauguin. In his rich and multi-layered narrative paintings, Armitage questions social norms, religious ideology, politics and cultural clichés. The exhibition will include 15 of the artist’s recent large-scale works, alongside a selection of around 35 works by East African artists chosen by Armitage.

Main Galleries (Galleries 2, 3, Central Hall and Lecture Room)

In March 2021, the Royal Academy of Arts will present David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 comprising a new body of work created by David Hockney RA during a period of intense activity at his home in Normandy, charting the unfolding and progression of spring. The period in which these works were made coincided with the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, where Hockney, along with the rest of Europe and much of the world, was in a state of lockdown. Faced with an unprecedented and perplexing period, Hockney’s focus on the emergence of spring instead celebrates the natural world and urges people, as he does himself in one of his frequently used phrases, to ‘love life’. This will be the first time the works will be exhibited, opening exactly a year after the works were made.

The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries

The Royal Academy of Arts will present a landmark exhibition bringing together for the first time the work of acclaimed British artist Tracey Emin RA (b.1963) and the Norwegian Expressionist Edvard Munch (1863-1944), two internationally renowned artists born 100 years apart. Long fascinated and inspired by Edvard Munch’s work, Tracey Emin will choose a selection of his masterpieces to accompany her own works.