LONDON.- The Royal Academy is presenting the 257th Summer Exhibition, sponsored by Insight Investment, a unique celebration of contemporary art and architecture, providing a vital platform and support for the artistic community. The majority of works are available to buy and sales directly support the exhibiting artists and the RA’s charitable work, including training the next generation of artists at the Royal Academy Schools. Internationally acclaimed architect and Royal Academician Farshid Moussavi has co-ordinated this year’s Summer Exhibition and, with the Summer Exhibition Committee, explores the theme of ‘Dialogues’.

Farshid Moussavi RA said “The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025 is dedicated to art’s capacity to forge dialogues and to afford us sensitivity towards societal concerns, such as ecology, survival and living together. These dialogues can be between people of different races, genders, or cultures; between humans, all species, and the planet; or across different disciplines - art, science, politics for example.” For the first time, architecture is integrated with the artworks throughout the show, creating conversations with art rather than being confined to its own space.

Artists exhibiting work this year include British artist Alice Channer, whose dramatic 6m high installation of ostrich feathers and steel chain greets visitors as they enter the exhibition. Brazilian artist Antonio Tarsis has created a work especially for the show consisting of a 4.5m high and 7m wide wall made from deconstructed matchboxes. Suspended works are a theme that continues throughout the exhibition; hanging above visitors in the largest gallery is an installation of textile carcasses by Argentine American artist Tamara Kostianovsky. Other artists invited to exhibit this year include Lucy and Jorge Orta, Hussein Chalayan, Anya Gallaccio and John Walker.

In addition to the large number of public submissions, Royal Academicians showing works include Rana Begum, Frank Bowling, Grayson Perry, Lubaina Himid, Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Conrad Shawcross, Yinka Shonibare and Rose Wylie. Honorary Royal Academician Jenny Holzer is showing work at the Summer Exhibition for the very first time. Other Honorary Royal Academicians include

Marina Abramović, El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, Mimmo Paladino and Kiki Smith. There are also memorials to the late Royal Academicians Norman Ackroyd and Timothy Hyman.

Committee members Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald RA of 6a architects have, in response to the theme, invited architectural submissions that explore how architecture can bring society together and reconnect with nature and its entangled global past and present. On display is work by architects and designers including Material Cultures, DK-CM, Arinjoy Sen and JA Projects, who are presenting an interactive installation first seen at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. A 6m high multi-purpose roost for wildlife, designed by 51 architecture, is on view in the Lovelace Courtyard, located between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens.

A playful, large-scale installation by Ryan Gander RA is on display in the Annenberg Courtyard. Featuring five 3m diameter inflatable balls inscribed with absurd questions developed with children, the work represents the inquisitiveness of children who ask what grown-up minds often dismiss as nonsensical or illogical.