The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is one of the biggest art shows in the cultural calendar. The exhibition showcases works by established and emerging artists. The world’s oldest open submission exhibition, it has been held every year at the Royal Academy of Art’s (RA) Piccadilly home since 1769, and invites public entries across a number of artistic disciplines, including architecture, as well as works by Royal Academicians.
This year the exhibition will be coordinated by Farshid Moussavi OBE RA, and in a first for the show, architecture works will be woven throughout the show, rather than being grouped in one space as in previous years.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025
The architect and educator described this year’s theme, ‘Dialogues’, in a statement released by the RA:
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025 will be 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. Artists and architects working with different media are invited to submit works that propose what we can connect to and with whom. We invite you to share ideas, objects and ways of working that matter to our common world. Dialogues in any form are welcome, whether they emerge through the artistic process or are found within the content of the work, and will underpin the curatorial approach.
Farshid Moussavi OBE RA
Farshid Moussavi is an Iranian-born British architect and educator. She graduated from The Bartlett in 1989. Her most well-known buildings include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and the award-winning Yokohama International Ferry Terminal. Alongside leading an award-winning architectural practice, Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA), she has been Professor In Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 2005. She was appointed a Visiting Professor at The Bartlett in 2021, as well as receiving an Honorary Fellowship from UCL. She was elected a Royal Academician in 2015 and Professor of Architecture at the RA Schools in 2017, and appointed Order of The British Empire in 2018. In 2022 she was selected as one of the Mayor of London’s 42 Design Advocates to support his vision for 'Good Growth’.
The RA are welcoming submissions for the exhibition from 07 January 2025.