It’s that time of year again. Yes, the Summer Exhibition is back at the Royal Academy and there are more works of art on show than ever before. The lively hang, co-ordinated by artist David Remfry MBE RA, takes as its them the quote “only connect” (Howards End by E.M. Forster). The sense of the quote is loosely and entertainingly interpreted through the huge variety of work on show.
Intriguing work from Black artists living in the Southern states of America is on show at the Royal Academy in London. ‘Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers’ features work collected by William Arnett who set up a foundation to celebrate the work of artists who used found and recycled materials to create their work.
There are glorious things to be seen at Collect 2023 at Somerset House. Pieces on show at Collect are at that tipping point between art and craft but at such a high level. Artist show how many materials can be used with cleverness and ingenuity to create work of sublime beauty.
Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance at the Victoria and Albert Museum. What a joy to get acquainted with the master sculptor Donatello (1386-1466) whose sensational work captured personality, emotion and a sense of history. Whether working in terracotta, marble, wax or wood he brings an authenticity to the people depicted or the religious scenes he was commissioned to depict. What a knockout show.
Spain and the Hispanic World. At the Royal Academy, there’s an impressive collection of works from the Ancient World through to the evolution of Spanish culture as it shifted to South America.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Fly in League with the Night. This remarkable artist, marking 20 years of her artistic practice, has a huge show at Tate Britain which charts her impressive career (which is barely at its half way mark!) with her figurative paintings of imagined people.
Photograph by me of photographer’s subject! This is Iris and her bunny in front of a photograph taken in her family kitchen by her mother, Kirsty Mackay. It’s one of the many sensitive and charming portraits in this year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize on show at the National Portrait Gallery’s temporary space at Cromwell Place.
If you ever thought surrealism was something from the last century the Design Museum’s new exhibition shows that the spirit of the surreal has prevailed and finds form in design ideas and movements from all around the world and continues to influence contemporary designers and artists.
Paper Places 