Lund Humphries visits the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026
Held every year without interruption since 1769, the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition displays a diverse array of contemporary works. The theme for 2026 is ‘interconnectedness’, bringing works together that explore ideas of connection, association and entanglement. Overall co-ordinator Prof Ryan Gander OBE RA has also used his role to showcase the work of more than thirty current RA students, emphasising his role as an educator. Being part of a charity with an educational remit (the Lund Humphries Foundation for Visual Arts) the Lund Humphries team set off with high expectations and a lot of enthusiasm, on a thankfully not-too-hot day, to see what this year’s exhibition has to offer…
We were delighted to find a baby bronze sculpture (‘Concavities Maquette’ #536) by Nigel Hall RA, as well as one of his familiar large-scale works of corten steel in the Wohl Central Hall (‘Ocean’ #1848) and the immediately recognisable ‘Drawing 1911’ (#1552). ‘Concavities Maquette’ was displayed on a shelf in the Large Weston Room (a display technique which reappears in Gallery VI), showing these smaller works to great effect and echoing the painted ‘line of passivity’ which runs through some of the other galleries (more on this later). We enjoyed the way this shelf of objects broke up the flow of the rooms, slowing the passage through the exhibition and creating a focal point in what can be quite an overwhelming experience. Hall’s work ‘Ocean’ is set in a much more open space, hung by Ryan Gander RA and designed to be a place of “contemplation rather than immediate reaction”.
Want to know more? Nigel Hall: Sculpture & Drawings is available from the LH website.
The Large Weston Room has been hung by printmaker Oona Grimes RA, and two of Paul Huxley RA’s prints from his ‘Scaramouche’ series (numbers III and IV, #361 and #360 respectively) are here to be found on a wall below a shelf of ceramics. Another ‘Scaramouche’, number II (#933) pops up later on in Gallery V, curated by sculptor Goshka Macuga RA, who has approached the hang with ideas of the visual interconnectedness of the works as well as less comfortable juxtapositions. Finally, Huxley’s large painting, ‘Atlas Struggles’ (#597) displayed in Gallery III grabs the visitor’s attention upon entering the room. This room has been hung by Ryan Gander RA and features his ‘line of passivity’ (a painted white dividing line) which splits the space up to show larger works above the line and smaller works below – a technique borrowed from architectural practice and functioning as a dado rail.
Want to know more about Paul Huxley? Our beautiful monograph on the artist is available from the Lund Humphries website.
A striking large work hung above Ryan Gander RA's dividing 'line of passivity', is 'Love and Affection' by YBA artist Gary Hume RA. Hume came to prominence alongside other artists associated with the Young British Artists generation and his work, often completed using high-gloss industrial paint, fuses high-modernist abstract formalism with an enigmatic, sign-like quality. 'Love and Affection' uses such materials: it is made of satin wood and graphite on cradled wooden panel in aluminium frame.
This work is distinctively Hume in its bold, abstracted style, evoking physical (in this case, organic) forms through line and colour. Jarvis Cocker expresses the effect of Hume's art perfectly when he says: 'Gary Hume recently told me, "The only way to escape is to escape time. To become a time traveller. To invent your own time." Gary has done that: he has invented his own time and his own world. And here are the images of that world. The Primordial Images. The truth of what it means to be human. Or should that be "Hume-an"?'.
Want to know more? Our beautiful monograph on the artist is available from the Lund Humphries website.
Rose Wylie RA is an artist whose works are immediately recognisable, and we picked out her ‘Yellow Head V (Artist)’ #1005 on display in Gallery VI. Earlier this year a major solo exhibition on Wylie at the RA was held at the Royal Academy - the largest exhibition on the artist to date. Back in 2018, when Grayson Perry curated the Summer Exhibition, Rose Wylie joined Joe Tilson, Cornelia Parker and Perry in creating flags that were hung across Mayfair and St James’s to celebrate 250 years of the RA. Wylie’s flags were based on her series 'Lolita’s House'.
Want to know more? Rose Wylie is available from the Lund Humphries website.
The Summer Exhibition 2023 was curated by David Remfy RA, and this year’s show has his works in Galleries II and VIII. Remfry is perhaps best known for large-scale works often depicting people dancing. The three paintings in Gallery II – ‘Shimmering Shimmy’ #256, ‘It’s Red She Said’ # 257 and ‘Slow Slide in Waltz Time’ #261 – all sit within this tradition, though on a smaller scale than some of Remfry’s work. Gallery II has a very pink hue running through it, which counters the green of Gallery I which focuses on plants and gardens. Both of these first galleries have been hung by Katherine Jones RA, providing a varied and welcoming entry to the exhibition, moving from the more figurative green room to the abstract pink.
Some more Remfry works appear in Gallery VIII which is hung by Eileen Cooper RA. ‘One Pumpernickeled Bagel for the Lady’ #1403 and ‘Blue Angel’ #1414 and the larger, more sombre ‘Triple Goddess’ #1405 sit among a variety of works depicting women and girls.
Want to know more? Our multi-contributed book David Remfry is available to buy from our website.
Another artist with a range of works represented in the show, is Hughie O’Donoghue RA, whose work often explores the relationship between memory and identity. Writer and curator Jill Lloyd says, ‘O’Donoghue views history as a palimpsest or archaeological site where truths lie buried. The past he reveals in his richly layered paintings is a fusion of document and dream, memories and echoes, personal and universal experience’... and this is immediately evident in the large work ‘Ocean Solitude’ in Gallery III, which features mixed media on tarpaulin: an appropriate choice for the seafaring image of a ghostly fishing vessel emerging from the left of the image.
The fusion of memory and reality is also obliquely evident in the smaller works: ‘Four Trees’, ‘Lavender Skies’ and particularly ‘A Ploughed Field’. All ostensibly landscapes, the negative shapes and colours in these works also hint at the structure of buried bones, ribs, in the earth, perhaps a nod to the buried history of the soil and again evoking this ‘palimpsest’ effect described by Jill Lloyd.
Want to know more? Our multi-contributed book on Hughie O’Donoghue is available to buy from our website.
Fiona Rae RA’s large work in Gallery III ‘My Words Fly Up, My Thoughts Remain Below’ (#566) captures the viewer’s interest right away with its immensely detailed painting-doodles depicting impossible constructions in bright pastel colours. This large work is already sold, but there are also a series of similar smaller drawings in acrylic gouache and watercolour, displayed as a series of 5 (#291-295) in Gallery II.
A new monograph on the artist by Martin Herbert has been contracted by Lund Humphries and is planned to be published in 2027... keep your eyes peeled!
The distinctive palette of colours and their play with light mean that works #1346 and #1347 give themselves away as by internationally renowned artist Rana Begum RA. The colour-changing lenticular acrylic panel mounted on 3mm dibond, allows the close tones and their woven effect to trick the eye into anticipating a 3D object rather than the flat 2D surface. A similar effect is evident in two further works by Begum on display in Gallery V: #800 and #801, here in pastel tones. Begum’s work, which ranges across painting, sculpture and architecture, is both playful (almost interactive in the way it teases the eye) and purposefully ambiguous.
Want to know more? The beautifully produced book Rana Begum: Space Light Colour is available from the Lund Humphries website.
With works at the beginning, middle and end of this year’s exhibition, Dame Barbara Rae RA is a perpetual favourite. Starting in Gallery I, hung by print-maker Katherine Jones RA, her works ‘Deception Island’ (#10), a print in an edition of 30, and ‘Tide I’ (#11) a monotype print, are complementary in their palette of cool, bright colours forming uncertain landscapes, and stand out in a largely green room that celebrates gardens, allotments and the natural world. Gallery VII, hung by Eileen Cooper RA, brings two works featuring penguins: ‘Gentoo – Neko Harbour’ (#1218) and ‘Gentoo – Gerlache’ (#1219). These charismatic birds bring a jaunty and uplifting feel to a more flinty palette.
Finally, there is a beautiful wall of small paintings catalogued as one item, ‘Luskentyre Suite’ (#1731), which, perhaps slightly oddly, was hung in the Lecture Room, which is dedicated mainly to architectural models. (One of these, was from O’Donnell and Tuomey (#1721) whose winning design for Liverpool School of Architecture will come to fruition in September this year when the School re-opens. Information on our forthcoming book on the whole process of the design can be found via the Lund Humphries website.)
Want to know more about Barbara Rae? Our monograph on Barbara Rae is no longer in print, but she will feature in our forthcoming book Five Centuries of Scottish Art by Duncan Macmillan, publishing this autumn and our blogpost from 2013 attests to Rae’s place as a perennial RA favourite.
Towards the end of the exhibition, Gallery IX features two sets of photographs by Hélène Binet. Renowned for her photographs of both contemporary and historical architecture, these black and white works show Binet’s eye for framing and playing with light. ‘Thresholds - Confucian School Byeongsan Seowon, South Korea’ #1592 and ‘Thresholds - The Historical Hanok Village, South Korea’ #1593 are easy to miss, being behind a wall and reflecting the gallery lights, but still stand out, once you find them, for their understated drama and elegance.
Our beautiful book on Hélène Binet is currently out of stock but we are delighted that Hélène’s photographs will feature in our forthcoming book, Lessons from Liverpool documenting the competition to design the redevelopment of Liverpool School of Architecture which opens in September of this year.
Throughout the exhibition, architectural models and architectural drawings are cohesively displayed alongside painting, drawing and sculpture.
In Gallery IV, curated by Humphrey Ocean RA, we find a table of fascinating objets d’art, sculpture and models. At ‘home’ among artworks by Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, and Harry Hill, is an architectural model by Chris Dyson: ‘Ways of Living - Garlick Hill – A Home from Home in the City of London’ (Douglas fir massing model). Dyson’s architecture is distinctive for its recurring interest in the interactions between people and city, culture and community, and it is indelibly associated with the City of London, and in particular with Spitalfields where he has lived and worked since 1990. It’s a place that provides a fitting metaphor for his architecture: blending new and old. This is discussed in detail in the monograph by Dominic Bradbury: Heritage and Modernity.
Accompanying Chris Dyson’s ‘Ways of Living’ in Gallery IV is another architectural model by a practice on whom Lund Humphries has published a book: Henley Halebrown. The model of ‘Arnold Road Social Housing’, sits on the opposite side of the display table from the model by Chris Dyson, creating an effective counterbalance between these two examples of practical model-making for the architectural design process, and the numerous more abstract, sculptural pieces displayed alongside them. Henley Halebrown models have proved popular with the curators this year, as Eileen Cooper RA and Katherine Jones RA have chosen another model by the practice for Gallery IX: ‘Copper Lane Co-Housing' (maple wood).
Henley Halebrown Architects produce architecture that takes account of the way people actually use buildings and how spaces affect our sense of well-being. Working mainly in the fields of housing, education and commercial space, their design promotes social interaction and strives for continuity rather than novelty. Find out more in the Lund Humphries book, Henley Halebrown: Building for Society 2010–2022, by Tom Neville, Simon Henley and Gavin Hale-Brown, which highlights the critical thinking which is at the heart of their work.
While much architectural work is distributed throughout the show (as seen with the work of Chris Dyson and Henley Halebrown) the Lecture Room is especially focused on this discipline, being curated by the architect Peter St John, and featuring works by the great and good of the vocation, including Sir David Chipperfield RA’s masterplan for the Royal Academy of Arts, and Lord Foster of Thames Bank RA’s plans for the memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in St James’s Park.
Among many excellent works of architectural draughtsmanship, Peter Cook’s drawings in ink and watercolour are immediately recognisable by their vibrant colour palette and futuristic style. One work, ‘Spa’, appears in Gallery IX and three others appear in the Lecture Room: ‘Fingers and Pockets (Yellow)’, ‘Fingers and Pockets (Red)’, and ‘The Large Room’.
Cook's distinctive drawings feature in the Lund Humphries book Drawing Architecture: Conversations on ContemporaryArchitecture, edited by Mark Dorrian, Riet Eeckhout and Arnaud Hendrickx.
It was a great pleasure to see so many Lund Humphries artists featured in the Summer Exhibition again this year, so though we may be biased, we highly recommend a visit! And whether you can make it or not, we do hope you’ll check out our books on all the fantastic artists and architects in this blogpost and beyond…
For more information on the Summer Exhibition visit the RA website. Most of the works on display are for sale. You can browse the collection here.
We'll finish with some snaps of the Lund Humphries team in action...
