Summer Exhibition @ Royal Academy

mcconnellgeorgia
Jun 27, 2017
2 min read

Last year I was invited to the Royal Academy as a friend.. this time round I was invited as a buyer yippee! (after purchasing a print by Yinka Shonibare). To my disappointment I found that there was no free champagne, no glamorous people and no free booklets, (even though last year I'm sure the booklets were free and not £3.50..!!). However here are a selection of works that are worth taking note of:

1. My favourite sculpture in the exhibition - you can hang it outside and it will rust even more!

2. Lisa Milroy Tea Bowls: the process behind making a painting/print is conveyed below. It is honest, pure and simple. However it took me a few moments trying to put two and two together. I feel like the end product is left floating slightly detached and unrelated from it's womb. Not sure who would buy this and if they did, I feel like they could easily leave part of the work behind...

3. This horrible porcupine man is deeply disturbing. Is the figure taking on the pose of prayer or is he sheltering from the world around him?

4. I love the way the curators have placed Tracy Emin's meaningless light up writing above a political piece showing a edgy motorcycle gang in hijabs.

5. This may appear to be a twisted cardboard sculpture, but in fact it is made of wood. (there had to be one sculpture a la Jeff Koons in the RA exhibition.

6. This painting I selected purely for being aesthetically pleasing. However it could easily pass as one of those holiday paintings you buy when you're in Malaysia to bring back to your minimalist London home in an attempt to seem more culturally diverse.

7. What exhibition wouldn't be complete or exciting without a grotesque sculpture by Anish Kapoor. One critic has compared it to the "menstrual cycle".. however I think it verges on Eton Mess made by kids in a sandpit.

8. My favourite work in the whole exhibition sadly wasn't for sale. It was a film by Filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien Turner. He created a series of films linked to one another appearing on 5 different screens. His 'WESTERN UNION' - Small Boats is the concluding part of his Expedition Trilogy, documents the devastating journey of immigrants fleeing their country in hope of a better life. This shot below show the dead migrants washed up on the beach while children play in the background unaware of what is happening.