Joe Lycett: Summer Exhibitionist

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Joe Lycett

Luke McMahon

Tom Currie

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC Two - Joe Lycett: Summer Exhibitionist

Comedian Joe Lycett follows hopeful artists submitting to the RA Summer Exhibition 2022.

Art-loving comedian Joe Lycett joins artists hoping to make it onto the walls of the RA Summer Exhibition 2022, the world’s largest open-submission art contest.

Art-loving comedian Joe Lycett follows a fascinating mix of artists submitting to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2022, the world’s largest open-entry art contest. Here, anyone can send in their work to be judged and stand a chance of making it onto the Royal Academy’s prestigious walls.

Every year, tens of thousands of people make a submission, but only a fraction of the very best make it into the final show each summer. Joe himself has first-hand experience as a ‘summer exhibitionist’. In 2018, he entered a small sculpture called Chris, made from clay and a tub of Pringles, that somehow ended up in that year’s exhibition. He gave Chris an eyewatering price tag of £12.5 million. 

However, Joe’s beginners luck deserted him, and each year since, his artwork has been rejected by the RA judges, showing just how competitive the infamous Summer Exhibition selection process really is. Of the 15,000 works submitted this year, only 900 will end up in the final show. Knowing both the highs of RA success and much more frequent lows of RA rejection, Joe is an informed guide to this year’s RA Summer Exhibition.

Exploring the brutal and bizarre stages of the judging process, Joe also delves into the remarkable artwork and backstories of his fellow ‘send-in’ artists, all hoping to realise their dream of making it onto the RA walls this summer alongside the rock stars of the art world.

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