The 191st Annual encompasses aesthetic and conceptual approaches including abstraction, minimalism, realism, figuration, and portraiture in a range of mediums such as drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, video, architectural models, book projects, and printmaking.

Founded nearly 200 years ago in 1825, ‘Academy Style’ at the National Academy has undergone many transformations over the years. Today ‘Academy Style’ is diverse in practice, decidedly contemporary (members were invited to submit works made in the last three years), and reflective of an institutional identity and ethos initiated and led by artists and architects. In the earliest years of the National Academy, the artwork produced by the membership followed the English tradition in both style and method, with an emphasis on painting focused on history, landscape, and portraiture. The Academy initially engaged with the ‘arts of design’ as defined in 1825 to include painting, drawing, architecture, sculpture, and engraving. Now, nearly 200 years later, more recently elected Academicians work in mediums that had not yet entered the Western canon when the National Academy was founded: installation, moving image, printmaking, digital art and socially engaged art and architecture, among others – all examples of 21st Century ‘Academy Style.’

The 191st Annual: Academy Style is co-curated by Sara Reisman, Chief Curator, and Natalia Viera Salgado, Associate Curator.