Installation view of one of the print rooms with Yinka Shonibare’s Beekeeper (Girl) II
(Picture: David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts)Climate apocalypse is nearly upon us. Practically everyone in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition says so. I’ve never seen such consensus at this famously competitive show.
With a whopping 1,462 works this year’s edition, restored to its traditional summer slot at last, is even bigger than usual by a couple of hundred items and yet, for a change, it feels like less of a clutter. Gone, mostly, are the stuffed salon hangs where minor Royal Academicians are relegated to hugging the ceiling. Great swathes of upper wall space in several of the galleries have been left clear. It’s deceptive of course - there’s still way too much to look at - but at least you don’t come out with your head spinning.
