Yinka Shonibare CBE RA coordinates Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

The Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission art show and has run without interruption since 1769. Bringing together art in all mediums, from prints, paintings, film and photography to sculpture, architectural works and more by leading artists, the exhibition celebrates Royal Academicians and household names as well as new and emerging talent. This annual celebration of art and creativity continues in 2021, with coordinator Yinka Shonibare CBE RA celebrating the joy of creating art through the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’. Income from the Summer Exhibition supports both the exhibiting artists and the not-for-profit work of the RA.

"The show is to be titled 'Re-claiming Magic' and will transcend a singular Western art history's point of reference to focus on magic and a return to the visceral aspects of art-making. The exhibition will be a celebration of the transformative powers of the magical in art, a return to the ritualistic and the sheer joy of making. Western Renaissance art education, Modernist and Conceptual Art practices led to the devaluing of art practices from other cultures in their unmediated forms. This exhibition seeks to restore value to marginalised practices, to reclaim the magic of those works in the context of the Royal Academy. I seek to propose a new pride in the concept of 'Primitivism' as an equally valid form of enlightenment alongside other Art practices". - Yinka Shonibare CBE RA