Summer Exhibition 2024 at the Royal Academy, London

Bass Rock (Songs of the North Volume 1) - David Moore and Kate Davis
 woven music score

This year the RA Summer Exhibition's theme is ‘Making Space’. A friend very kindly took me along last time I was in London and it was great to peruse all the exhibits (over 1700 in 13 gallery spaces) and also a bit overwhelming. Here are a baker's dozen that caught my eye...

Bass Rock (Songs of the North Volume 1) detail - David Moore and Kate Davis
 woven music score - detail

Bass Rock by David Moore & Kate Davis was my favourite piece - not only because I'm familiar with the place as a landmark but also the picture's construction and that you could see the musical notes when you got close up.  It was woven from a musical score.

Super stitched, narrative piece by Sophie-Louise Pywell - very thought provoking...

A Common Thread - Sophie-Louise Pywell
hand embroidery on calico

A Common Thread (detail) - Sophie-Louise Pywell
hand embroidery on calico

A Common Thread (detail) - Sophie-Louise Pywell
hand embroidery on calico

Very nostalgic piece by Jane Chipp...

Vestiges - Jane Chipp
collage using antique papers

Who doesn't love a pencil!  I loved that Minty Sainsbury saved all these pencils and all that work they represented...

Practise - Minty Sainsbury
272 pencil stubs collected over nine years of drawing

Practise (detail) - Minty Sainsbury
272 pencil stubs collected over nine years of drawing

The textures of the porcelain and the colours were fabulous in this piece by Julie Massie... 

Vast Seas in Green to Grey - Julie Massie
porcelain on wood

Chunyoung Yang's work made me smile...

Love Myself - Chunyoung Yang
knitting wool and cotton filling

Loved the textures in Rachel Pearcey's A Space Redefined...

A Space Redefined - Rachel Pearcey
thread on cotton twill throw

A Space Redefined (detail) - Rachel Pearcey
thread on cotton twill throw

What I loved about Sam McKechnie's piece was that it offered so many possibilities of stories that could be told...

Clean - Sam McKechnie
glazed wooden box containing found objects, pastels and paper collage

Alison Aye made me wonder whether the end of the world was near...

Shifting to the Moon - Alison Aye
paper hand-stitched to tea towel

The colours and textures appealed in this piece by Viola Cullip...

Never Mind the Gaps - Viola Cullip
recycled sari fabric and handdyed muslin with hand and machine embroidery

I loved this mosaic from the Hackney Mosaic Project...

Some Hackney Birds - Hackney Mosaic Project
glass and ceramic mosaic

These were Abigail O'Brien's prints of the original stitched pictures which was hard to tell from where you could view it.  In fact throughout the exhibition, there were a number of prints of textiles that looked like the actual textiles, even up close...

Mentation I and Mentation II - Abigail O’Brien
archival print 

and of course I loved this by Neville Godwin...

Nothing to See Here - Neville Godwin

screenprint with hand distressing and applied glitter

This is an image of the postcard as the print was too high up in the gallery for me to get a good picture.

In addition, outside in the courtyard, this monumental piece by Nicola Turner was something to behold.   Tendrils, which Turner has twisted and stitched together, come off and wrap round the statue of Joshua Reynolds in a rather foreboding way. Turner uses found objects including grand piano legs, chair stuffing and horsehair from old mattresses. In using these objects she gives new life to what would otherwise be discarded.  I found this grimly fascinating...

The Meddling Fiend - Nicola Turner
mixed media including horsehair, wool, wood and brass

The Meddling Fiend (detail) - Nicola Turner
mixed media including horsehair, wool, wood and brass

The Summer Exhibition is on at the RA until Sunday 18 August 2024.  I think you could go many times and notice different things every time. There's so much, you're bound to find something you like.  There was a large piece by El Anatsui and some Cornelia Parker pieces that I liked and many smaller pieces that I enjoyed too.  There's lots for sale if you want to buy something, from less than £100 to many thousands of pounds - or you could just buy a postcard!