'I’m really excited to be selected for Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition 2026' says Knaresborough artist
A Knaresborough artist has become one in ten thousand by being selected for this year’s prestigious Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
Earlier this week, Howard Davidson, or ‘Hodah’ as he is known, travelled down to London to take part in Varnishing Day, the day when Academicians with work in the Summer Exhibition meet and celebrate, adding finishing touches to their work before the opening day.
This talented Knaresborough artist and printmaker has good reason to celebrate.
Out of more than 10,000 people who submit their work each January for selection, less than 10% are successful.
The RA has famously rejected a number of now-acclaimed artists over the years, from Banksy in recent times, albeit under a pseudonym, to British landscape painter John Constable.
Hodah, who is originally from New York City, only moved to Knaresborough from London with his wife recently.
He describes being selected for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, which has run uninterrupted since 1769 and featured the likes of David Hockney, Grayson Perry and Thomas Gainsborough in the past, as a "huge honour and something I’m really excited about".
Regarded as "the world's largest open submission exhibition", the show runs at Burlington House on Piccadilly in Mayfair from June 16 to August 23.
One of approximately 1,851 exhibits of all kinds utilising every inch of space in the main gallery, Hodah’s submission is a stunning Linocut print called 11th Station.
Rendered with stark, restrained lines, it depicts the Eleventh Station of the Cross.
More information: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/summer-exhibition-2026