Hello Kitty - Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

In recent years the RA Summer Exhibition has been more obviously "curated", which made for a more coherent (and higher quality) show than the exuberant chaos we had been used to, but which also felt less democratic than of old. This year it seemed there had been a compromise, since although most of the rooms displayed careful selection, two were deliberately more open and had the familiar feel of walls crowded with all sorts of styles and subjects. I felt this worked very well, as did the idea of including artworks with the architectural displays, instead of the usual rigid separation.

There was a lot of good work on display, and quite a few welcome flashes of humour which I don't remember before. I was pleased to see a sculpture by Ann Christopher, whose studio I visited a few years ago, as well as the usual Bill Jacklins, Elizabeth Blackadders and Alan Jonses, et al. But the biggest surprise was Tracy Emin's tiny metal sculpture of her cat, quite a change from the heavily sexual subject matter of her recent Hayward Gallery exhibition (although just as personal in its own way).

For me, though, the prints took pride of place this year. The range and quality was outstanding and many showed how this medium can really make use of vibrant colour, as well as all kinds of effects from precise lines to blurry atmospherics. I may be influenced because last week I visited the Royal Scoiety of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition at Bankside gallery (next to Tate Modern) and was similarly expressed (though I think the ones at the RA were generally of a higher quality). Prints may lack some of the subtility of oil paint, but can be wonderful for delivering an initial knockout impression (and for a fraction of of price!)

PS Forgot to mention the roomful of huge Grayson Perry tapestries which attracted a lot of attention - an updating of Hogarth's The Rake's Progress - not entirely my cup of tea, but arresting and original.