Now in its 244th year, the exhibition continues the tradition of showcasing work by both emerging and established artists in all media including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, architecture and film. This year’s Summer Exhibition, coordinated by Royal Academician Tess Jaray, attracted 11,000 entries, the highest number in its history, and only approximately 1,500 were selected to go on display.

The exhibition begins in the Wohl Central Hall, whose bright red walls pay homage to Matisse’s 1911 painting ‘The Red Studio’ while framing a diverse range of work that introduces visitors to the richness and variety of work on display throughout the Academy. From this space, visitors can glimpse the architecture gallery straight ahead. This year, this thematic gallery was curated by architects Chris Wilkinson and Eva Jiricna with the purposeful intention to blur the boundaries between architecture and the fine arts.

It is clear from exploring the architecture gallery that this discipline has never been granted such an important role in the recent history of the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibitions: not only do the drawings and models overflow from the architecture gallery into other rooms, but a large installation by Chris Wilkinson has taken over the Annenberg Courtyard. Titled ‘From Landscape to Portrait’, Wilkinson’s piece comprises a series of 11 wooden frames twisted through 90 degrees on a reflective basis that also incorporates a seating area for visitors.

Throughout the galleries of the Academy, the emphasis has been on developing a concerted approach to appreciating and exploring the potential of colour and shape, and no other space does it better than Gallery III, the grandest space in Burlington House. Curated by Tess Jaray, rather than presenting large art works in its vast space, this room contains a large quantity of smaller colourful paintings displayed on its grey walls in an undulating and flowing layout, demonstrating that work of a more modest scale can be as powerful as larger work.

The remaining galleries have been curated by artists Barbara Rae (with a focus on exploring landscape architecture and the work of Scottish and Irish artists), Peter Freeth and Chris Orr (who chose to emphasise the artisanal and tactile qualities of print as well as the diversity of large and small scale prints, including artists books – a creative category of work that has been garnering increased visibility in recent Summer Exhibitions), Mali Morries and Humphrey Ocean (who selected a diverse range of work by Royal Academicians), Stephen Chambers (whose curatorial criteria focused on the variety of media and materials used to produce art), and Alison Wilding (who selected varied sculptures ranging in scale, content and ambition).


The Royal Academy of Arts was established by King George III in 1768 with one of its founding principles being to ‘mount an annual exhibition open to all artists of distinguished merit’ to finance the training of young artists studying at the Royal Academy Schools. This exhibition has been held every year without interruption since 1769 and, in its current embodiment as the Summer Exhibition, it continues to play a significant part in raising funds to finance students through the sale of most works displayed.

The Royal Academy of Art’s 2012 Summer Exhibition opens to the public on 4 June and will close on 12 August 2012.

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The competition’s jury described the scheme as “a collection of linked pavilions, each orientated to respect the city grid, and anchored by a lookout tower” and found the design “deeply respectful of the site and setting, creating a fragmented, non-hierarchical, horizontal campus of linked pavilions where art and society could meet and inter-mingle. The connections between the pavilions have been well considered to permit a continuous gallery experience, if required.”

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The residences will be offered in 60 different optional floor plans with custom-designed interiors, and will have two attended lobbies with 24-hour personalized concierge services and valet parking. In addition, the complex will feature a fitness centre and a spa, as well as and ample gardens, pools, and entertainment spaces, including a club room with a bar, a private cinema, a library, conference rooms, and a kindergarten.

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Nick Elias, from the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) received the highest design prize of the evening, the RIBA Silver Medal (awarded to the best design project at Part 2 – Diploma/Masters level) for ‘PoohTown’.

Simon Dean, from Kingston University, was awarded the Bronze Medal (for best design project at Part 1 – degree level) for ‘Flow, 1944’.

Jasper Ludewig was awarded the Dissertation Medal for ‘Made Ground: A spatial history of Sydney Park’, submitted by the University of Sydney, Australia.

Silver Medal High Commendation:
Justin Cawley from the University of Sydney for ‘An Ark for Endangered Atmospheres’

Silver Medal Commendations:
Yannis Halkiopoulos from the University of Westminster for ‘Brooklyn Co-operative’
Louis Sullivan from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, for ‘The Living Dam’

Bronze Medal Commendations:
Samuel Little from London Metropolitan University for ‘City Frame: The reappropriation of Maple House’
Emily Priest from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, for ‘Rong Xhan Safehouse’
Ho Yeung Tsang from the University of Hong Kong for ‘Urban Living Transition: Vanishing heritage of Hong Kong residence’

Dissertation Medal High Commendation:
Ekaterina Tikhoniouk from University College Dublin for ‘Towards a Common Ground for Play: Examining the history of play and playgrounds in Dublin’s Liberties’

Dissertation Medal Commendation:
Leon Fenster from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, for ‘Exilic Landscapes: Synagogues and Jewish architectural identity in 1870s Britain’

Serjeant Awards for Excellence in Drawing:
Part 1: Oliver Riviere from the University of Brighton for ‘The Institute of Concrete Poetry’
Part 2: Adam Bell for the University of Greenwich for ‘The Restored Commonwealth Club’

The UK office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) also awarded the SOM Foundation Fellowships UK, selected from this year’s entries for the RIBA President’s Medals, to Kent Gin from the University of East London for ‘Cultural Perforation of Madrid, Disruption of the Defined’ and Mike Lim from the Royal College of Art, for ‘Untitled, 2014. Mixed Media’.

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However, the most significant of Burberry’s achievements over the last year was the expansion of its retail network, with some existing stores being refurbished and nine mainline stores opened. Earlier in the year, the brand inaugurated a new flagship store in China (located in Shanghai’s Kerry Centre), and reopened its flagship store in San Francisco (in a four-floor historic townhouse on Post Street). More recently, Burberry reopened an expanded two-floor store in Munich, unveiled its biggest store to date in Japan (occupying four floors of a building in Omotesando, Tokyo), and opened a new flagship store in Los Angeles.

To mark the opening of the Los Angeles store (set on the corner of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way in Beverly Hills), Burberry’s design director Christopher Bailey unveiled the Burberry Rodeo Drive Walk of Style plaque, which commemorates the contribution the brand has made to the fashion industry and its connection with Los Angeles’ entertainment community.

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Featuring unique technical detail such as patented diagonal hinges and comfort acetate top bars, all ill.i eyewear models include a laser-engraved will.i.am ‘willpower’ logo and signature line. The inaugural collection’s colour palette combines matte and glossy finishes in gold, black, white, silver, gunmetal and tortoiseshell, whereas lenses come in silver grey, bronze grey, brown, and mirrored gold.

The Style Examiner got exclusive access to the first ill.i models and was impressed by the industrial aeronautics aesthetic that underpinned the sunglasses styles for men, which feature round and angular frames made from metal or acetate; whereas for women, frames vary between oversized cat-eye shapes, round thin spectacles and square translucent styles.

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n his description of the project, Lord Foster described the design for the new airport as pioneering “a new concept for a large-span, single airport enclosure, which will achieve new levels of efficiency and flexibility – and it will be beautiful. The experience for passengers will be unique. Its design provides the most flexible enclosure possible to accommodate internal change and an increase in capacity. Mexico has really seized the initiative in investing in its national airport, understanding its social and economic importance and planning for the future. There will be nothing else like it in the world.”

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The store houses Valentino’s womenswear, menswear and accessories lines across three floors where grey marble coexists with black steel, aluminium and brass. Two other Valentino stores (one in Aspen, Colorado, and the other in Miami’s Design Distric) are scheduled to open this year in the USA, a market that accounts for approximately 25% of the label’s global sales.

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Occupying 15,000 square meters distributed across 15 floors, the building provides new studios, laboratories and workshops, exhibition areas, multi-functional classrooms, a lecture theatre and a communal lounge to over 1,800 students and staff of the school’s disciplines of Industrial & Products Design, Visual Communication, Advertising, Digital Design and Environmental Design.

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In the year it opened, and as part of its cultural outreach programme, the Dragão do Mar centre featured the first ever edition of Dragão Fashion Brasil. Organised every year since then by Claudio Silveira with the financial support from commercial partners and local and national government authorities (including the Federal Government of the region of Ceará and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture), the event serves not only as a platform for new and established fashion designers to show their creations, but also entails a public series of lectures, debates, performances, seminars and practical workshops about the importance of fashion and associated creative industries. Anchored by an eclectic creative curatorial intent that is also practical and educational in its purpose, as it celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2014, Dragão Fashion Brasil confirmed its unique role in the global landscape of fashion events.

Between 23 and 27 April, over 45,000 participants made the most of the 2014 Dragão Fashion Brasil by attending at least one of the 40 runway shows where Brazilian and international designers and fashion graduates showed their latest collections, as well as taking part in dozens of presentations and hands-on activities. In addition, the showcase also involved the region’s buoyant manufacturing industry (which includes some of the largest fabric and clothing factories in the world, responsible for employing 115,000 people, producing 116,000 tonnes of fabric, and making 600 million garments a year) in the form of sponsorships and collaborations with emerging designers.

If most fashion creations displayed in the Dragão do Mar complex in the bustling centre of Fortaleza demonstrated interesting treatments of experimental concepts, when it came to their developmental process and direction of execution, proficiency levels unsurprisingly varied. However, a large number of brands stood out for their accomplished results and for demonstrating the benefits of quality and creativity to the betterment of society.
In womenswear, the reinterpretation of a traditional ultra-feminine perspective of fashion could be observed in the collections proposed by Kalil Nepomuceno and Ivanildo Nunes. In their designs, long voluminous evening dresses featured layers of chiffon and lace and the silhouettes were overall accentuated in voluptuous hourglass shapes. Drawing from this principle, but allowing a more dynamic fluidity generated by ornamented fabrics, Lino Villaventura presented a collection with a dramatic colour palette that combined dark earthy tones with off-whites, and print came in the form of ombré gradients, abstract florals and animal skin prints. And, in typical Villaventura fashion, large pleats, bejewelled pins and beaded stitching provided textured contours by manipulating the layering and hanging direction of delicate fabrics such as gauze and silk. 

London-based Italian designer Nico Didonna accepted the invitation made by the organisers of Dragão Fashion Brasil and presented a collection underpinned by the notion of wrapping. Plain off-white, royal blue, red, anthracite or hand-painted dresses made from jersey, viscose, or crepe highlighted the natural curves of the body while adjusting to, rather than shaping, the silhouette. Also playing a key role in this broad category, Mark Greiner and Roberto Dias worked together on a unique contemporary reinterpretation of local folklore that relied on strong original touches such as highly structured shoulders and a good treatment of noble fabrics (including chiffons, soft leathers and jacquards), even if, at stages, the final results were let down by the actual styling of the runway presentation.

However, it was when designers opted for exploring minimal lines and structured silhouettes that womenswear collections were at their most successful during the 2014 edition of Dragão Fashion Brasil. In this sense, Vitorino Campos’s fusion of streetwear tailoring with luxurious fabrics (unveiled just a few weeks earlier during São Paulo Fashion Week), Carol Barreto’s asymmetrically fastened garments and structured cuts (that contrasted with oversized crocheted jewellery pieces), Jefferson Ribeiro’s geometric exercises in an elegant colour palette of white, lemon and crimson, and Gisela Franck’s deconstructed garments made from soft fabrics with applications of collage-like layers all contributed a new vocabulary towards the lexicon of Brazilian women’s fashion.

In menswear, the most accomplished collection was the one that guest designer Nuno Gama presented on the very last day. Well-established in his native Portugal (where he founded his eponymous label in 1991), Gama chose to exhibit and edited version of his Autumn/Winter 2014 collection, where textures and rich materials (including fox fur, snakeskin, astrakhan, leather and thick wools) provided the material frame to extremely fitted cuts.

Currently enrolled in Milan’s Istituto Marangoni, young designer Jonathan Scarpari took a break from his fashion studies to return to his native Brazil and show his latest collection during Dragão Fashion Brasil. Entitled ‘B-24’, the collection drew inspiration from the idea of incorporating the genetic code into the design of unique garments in order to highlight the importance of individuality. This was achieved by working fabrics such as softened leather through hand-woven three-dimensional houndstooth patterns. In addition, Brazilian and Italian cool wool and organic silk were used in fitted tops, tailored shirts, jackets, trousers, and overalls that showed the influence of recent menswear designs by the likes of J.W. Anderson while audaciously and confidently attempting to push forward the boundaries of conventional tailoring.

Rather than focussing on a single collection, like most designers opted to do in Fortaleza, renowned Brazilian menswear designer Mario Queiroz showed 27 looks that he had designed throughout his 18-year-old career, ranging from conventional suiting and casual staples to more confidently daring kaftans, sleeveless jumpsuits, gold shorts, and sequined espadrilles. Pushing the boundaries quite a few steps further, Weider Silveiro and Jadson Raniere displayed the collection that they presented to inaugurate their label 2|Dois in October 2013. Both alumni of the São Paulo-based creative platform Casa de Criadores, Silveiro and Raniere investigated the potential of deconstructed tailoring, androgynous identities, and the influence of 1980s Japanese designers in details such as exposed stitching and frayed fabrics, elongated sleeves balancing cropped waist lines, oversized leather biker jackets, and abstract patterns supposedly inspired by the futuristic graphic artwork created by Peter Saville for Joy Division’s 1979 album ‘Unknown Pleasures’.

When asked to describe 2|Dois to Brazilian followers of fashion, Silveiro and Raniere declared that they hoped it would be ‘a breath of fresh air in a market typified by sameness.’ As their runway show finished and the audience applauded with resounding excitement, there was little doubt that their words would also be most suitable to describe what Dragão Fashion Brasil has achieved over 15 years, and the exciting developments that Brazilian fashion has in store for many more years to come.

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