The Royal Academy's open-submission Summer Exhibition filled the Main Galleries with more than 1,700 works, coordinated by the architect Farshid Moussavi RA.
The architect Farshid Moussavi RA coordinated the 257th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in Mayfair, from Tuesday 17 June to Sunday 17 August 2025.
The Academy has held the Summer Exhibition every year without interruption since 1769. It takes submissions from the public as well as from Royal Academicians, so work by famous artists hangs beside work by members of the public. The hang covers prints, paintings, films, photography, sculpture and architecture.
Most pieces were for sale. The proceeds supported the exhibiting artists and the Academy, a charity that receives no government funding.
Moussavi, an Iranian-born British architect, gave the edition the theme of Dialogues: art’s capacity to connect people, humans and the planet, and art, science and politics. Seven fellow Academicians sat on her committee, among them Christopher Le Brun, Helen Sear and Richard Wilson.
They chose more than 1,700 works. For the first time, architecture ran through the galleries instead of hanging in a room of its own.
Ryan Gander installed five inflatable balls, each three metres across, in the courtyard. Tracey Emin showed new paintings, and sculptural installations hung from the gallery ceilings.