It is hard to believe that the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts has been running for 243 years! 

Each year it showcases a selection of art from established and emerging artists chosen from more than 12,000 pieces, all hoping for a place at this prestigious art show. The result is a superb array of paintings, photography, sculpture and film to brighten your day – even if the weather does not match it!

The fantastic sculpture by Jeff Koons that greets visitors as they walk into the RA courtyard is a personal favourite as we loved the warm, cheery feelings that it evokes and it sets the tone for the rest of the exhibition.

The Summer Exhibition gives visitors an unrivalled variety of art. Each room is jam-packed with art: big art, miniscule art, art in boxes, art hanging from the ceiling, minimal art, immensely detailed art, kinetic artworks, modern sculpture sitting alongside impressionist-styled painting, surrealism standing alongside new architecture and plenty more.

At first we found it odd that the myriad works in the gallery weren’t accompanied by individual explanations or titles. After a few minutes we realised why; The focus of the exhibition is on the artwork rather than the explanation. We are granted a short overview in each room but that’s it.

Favourite pieces include Simon Brundret’s Dog In a Bin which shows a life-size moving dog sculpture rummaging for food in a rubbish bin and a beautiful oil painting of London by Ken Howard titled Rain Effect In The City.

It’s rare to be afforded the privilege of experiencing works by established modern artists such as Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor alongside emerging talent. This is one exhibition where, like London, there really is something to suit all tastes.

Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts until 15 Aug 2011. Book tickets

The year kicks off with Modern British Sculpture, the first exhibition for 30 years to examine 20th-century British sculpture. “It’s a long overdue exhibition,” said curator Dr Adrian Locke. The show will feature Hepworth, Moore and Hirst alongside Jacob Epstein, Richard Long and Anthony Caro.

March sees the opening of Watteau’s Drawings: Virtuosity and Delight, dedicated to the French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Watteau’s subjects included theatre actors, rural labourers and children. He also created sensual depictions of nude women.  “It will be quite a sexy show,” promised Kathleen Soriano, the Royal Academy’s director of exhibitions.

Eye Witness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century opens in June, showing the work of Hungarian artists who left their home country to make their names in the fields of photojournalism, fashion and art photography. The display will include 200 photos from 1914 to 1989, ranging from rural scenes to war photography and radical fashion pictures.

Degas Dancers, featuring Degas’ famous paintings and sculptures of young ballerinas, is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Curator Ann Dumas (who was responsible for this year’s Van Gogh blockbuster) hopes the show will alter people’s perceptions of Degas. Although known for his pretty pictures of dancers, Degas was a forward-thinking and experimental artist, who was “well aware of and sometimes actively involved in” early developments in photography and film, said Dumas.

The focus will turn to Russia in autumn 2011, with the opening of Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935. This exhibition will look at Russian avant-garde architecture during a brief but intense period of design and construction, with photos showing how the drive towards a new socialist society brought together radical art and architecture.

As well as these highlights, there’ll be the usual Summer Exhibition and RA Schools Show in the summer, and a series of exhibitions in the Architecture Space, including “something rather unexpected from Will Alsop,” according to Kathleen Soriano.

For more details visit www.royalacademy.org.uk

Visit London was allowed a sneak preview of this year’s Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. It certainly is an impressive display of some of the best in contemporary art.

While work by David Hockney and Tracey Emin is a major draw and rightly so, the most impressive work is arguably by some lesser-known artists.

The theme of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2010 is “raw” and that’s certainly conveyed in the paintings. Bright colours, in particular a burning orange, dominate much of the work.

The notion of raw is also transferred in sculptural form with David Mach’s Silver Streak, an imposing ten-foot tall gorilla made from coat hangers dominating Gallery VII.

If contemporary art is not your thing, head to the Lecture Room where drafts and models by some of the World’s most influential architects are shown. It’s worth looking to find the next Gherkin, The O2 or Millennium Bridge, arguably some of London’s most treasured landmarks.

Kicking off with potential blockbuster The Real Van Gogh, the programme encompasses everything from 18th-century watercolours to experimental contemporary art.

Among the shows we’ve got to look forward to are:

The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters

23 Jan-18 Apr
A landmark Van Gogh exhibition, featuring 65 paintings, 30 drawings and more than 35 letters and sketches.

Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain

13 Mar-13 Jun
One of the leading figures of 18th-century art, Paul Sandby is considered the father of English watercolour painting.

Summer Exhibition 2010

14 Jun-22 Aug
The annual Summer Exhibition - the world’s largest open submission show - takes place for the 242nd time in 2010.

Sargent and the Sea

10 Jul-26 Sep
John Sargent Singer (1856-1925) is known for his glamorous society portraits. This show features lesser-known beach scenes and dramatic seascapes.

 The Liechtenstein Collection

25 Sep-12 Dec
A unique opportunity to see the riches of the Princes of Liechtenstein, who own one of the world’s greatest private collections, including important works by Rubens.

Pioneering Painters: Glasgow Boys 1880-1900

30 Oct-23 Jan 2011
This show brings together the work of the Glasgow Boys, a revolutionary group of around 20 young painters working in Glasgow at the end of the 19th century.

GSK Contemporary

15 Nov-6 Feb 2011
The Royal Academy’s season of experimental contemporary art takes place for the third year running in 2010.

You don’t need to wait until next year to head to the Royal Academy. The brilliant Anish Kapoor exhibition is on now, and this year’s GSK Contemporary opens on 3 December.