The fabulous Royal Academy Of Arts has confirmed the dates for its Summer Exhibition 2015, which will see its walls crammed to the white-walled rafters once again with what is easily the widest ranging exhibition of the year. Taking in everything from drawings, print work and paintings to sculpture, installation art and architectural design it will see both professional artists’ and amateur work standing side by side in a massive explosion of creative flare and while it has its detractors, we’re big fans of the freedom and expression that it manages to hone in on.
The date it has been scheduled to open its doors to the public is the 8th June 2015 and it’ll be around all the way through the summer months (as you’d expect from the sunshine toting name) before coming to a close on the 16th August 2015. Opening times are 10am to 6pm every day with last entry at 5pm, except on Friday’s which is late night until 10pm and last entry at 9pm.
Tickets are already available to book in advance, but with such a popular exhibition you might want to choose the date you go to see it carefully, so that you’ve got enough breathing space and time to be able to take it all in. If you can make it early morning in the middle of the week you should have a lot more of the Gallery’s confines to yourself, but if you’re planning on rocking up for the opening weekend you should probably expect to be elbowing your way through a pretty sizable throng. Ticket prices are £13.50, including the donation, with senior tickets at £12.50, £10 for students, 16-18 year-olds and income support/jobseekers, and free entry for friends of the Royal Academy and children under 16.
If you’ve never been to the Summer Exhibition before and you’re planning on getting in on the art blitz action in 2015 you should probably brace yourself for a labyrinth-like journey through the work of contemporary artists from all walks of life. Every gallery in the Royal Academy Of Arts is taken up with featured items, covering many of the walls to near oblivion and dotted throughout the floor space like little (sometimes no so little) islands of artistic expression.
This year will be the 247th Summer Exhibition and with more than 1,200 pieces of new art on display it’s bound to be another impressive display of modern day art, with all of its variety, innovation and historical inspiration. It makes for a lot of fun scouring through everything to find your favourite pieces and spotting the odd one or two works by more well known artists scattered in and among up-and-coming professional and amateur work.
2015 will also be marked by the presence of a new addition to the Summer Exhibition line-up, taking a little inspiration from the Serpentine Gallery’s Summer Pavilion. Conrad Shawcross’ new massive, superstructure installation, The Dappled Light of the Sun (2015), will be occupying the Royal Academy Of Arts’ courtyard for the duration of this year’s Summer Exhibition. The large-scale work will be made up of thousands of steel tetrahedrons (pictured above) to form the structure of five metallic ‘clouds’ standing over six metres high and weighing five tonnes each.
The summer-long exhibition is being coordinated by acclaimed artist and teacher, Michael Craig-Martin, along with hanging committee members Norman Ackroyd, Olwyn Bowey, Gus Cummins, Jock McFadyen, Alison Wilding, David Remfry, Mick Rooney and Bill Woodrow. The architecture room, which is one of the many highlights for us, will be curated by Ian Ritchie.
The other important differentiating factor to take into account when planning a trip to the Royal Academy Of Arts’ Summer Exhibition is that a lot of the art on display is up for sales. This adds another layer of surprise to the event as you never really know what you’re going to be heading home with at the end of a visit.
