Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy

The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition has been running annually since 1769 and is the world's biggest open submission art show, attracting an overwhelming number of entrants each year. Last year's exhibition was curated by Grayson Perry RA, who led amused journalists on a press tour of the brightly painted galleries, dressed as a clown with a rubber chicken as a handbag. This year’s show will have a very different flavour, as painter of sombre scenes, Jock MacFayden RA will be curating.

In 1991, MacFayden was commissioned by the Artistic Records Committee of the Imperial War Museum to record the fall of the Berlin Wall and was elected a Royal Academician in 2012. Throughout his career, McFadyen's figurative painting has captured modern urban environments across Britain, Europe and America. The artist's interest in the modern will be translated into the theme of this year's exhibition, which McFadyen states will focus 'on artwork in all media which responds to the contemporary world.'

MacFayden will be tasked with the presentation of approximately 1200 works, selected from 16,000 entries received from around the world. Highlights of this year’s exhibition will include a ‘menagerie’ in the Central Hall, featuring works by Charles Avery, Polly Morgan and Mat Collishaw, all of whom conjure surreal worlds and situations. Other well-known names to be included in this year’s exhibition are Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, David Nash and Wolfang Tillmans alongside non-academicians Jeremy Deller and Marcus Harvey. German artist Anslem Kiefer and German photographer Wim Wenders will also be exhibiting.