RA Summer Exhibition 2025

Celebrity is of interest at the Summer Exhibition, as well as anonymity, since you need to page through the handbook or access the site to check the artist’s name for a piece you don’t recognise. METAL covergirls Marina Abramović and Mia Khalifa both lensed by Juergen Teller feature at the show, Khalifa with her face masked and both in nature. There’s the highly recognisable features of David Lynch depicted in oils and also a favourite of the show, Grayson Perry as Claire. Tracey Emin exhibits a self portrait and depiction of Jesus, Malala Yousafzai and co’s photographs are also represented on a beaded cushion.

Context and Dialogues, as the theme of the exhibition suggests, are key — artists exchange by representing each-other in the works listed above (except for Perry who only represents himself as alter-ego). This value by association and fame game is a tale as old as time, and is another pleasing point of entry for visitors. A little like painters copying the old masters. Or influencers giving us a selfie. Recognition and confusion, as in the Teller-Khalifa portrait that hides the most recognisable feature, the face, shine a light on art’s role in representation. Jean-Luc Godard’s films might be about light; maybe these works are also about the boundaries of their materials.

Fashion plays an interesting part in some of the curated works. Fetching London Brick Slippers are enchanting in their unusability. Labeled with a high street brand that uses synthetic materials, Liča Anić’s sculpture appears to address impermanence of such clothing items that do not last or are quickly replaced, despite synthetics’ environmental persistence, and the perceived stillness of brick. T-shirts by another artist are hung from the wall painted with provocative lettering, “The most important people are labourers” and “All relentless entities depend on your fatigue”. Along with the political implications of this language, the presentation is so interesting as the tee becomes the frame. The slippers and top point at industry and production, material realities of craft.

Grayson Perry as Claire in his ceramic pot provides some commentary on lobby art, state art and holding in farts, shining an unflattering light on conservative culture and what can and can’t be said. Perhaps it gives some perspective on the Summer Exhibition itself, since there appear to be written references to buying art and what may or may not be tasteful. This show, after all, has seen plenty of criticism in its time. Maximalism is still king at this annual exhibition. When you tire after gazing at hundreds of works, the Summer Exhibition is somewhat carnivalesque in its overwhelming clutter where you attempt to mentally delineate tat from the work of stars. It’s this game that really draws us in, observing taste.