Summer breeze

It's the exhibition guaranteed to make every art reviewer grow faint, the big summer roll-call of the only occasionally good, the often bad, and the shockingly bland. So many rooms, so many stuffy Academicians.

And yet this year feels so much breezier than last, so much less of an endurance test. Perhaps coming to it with such low expectations can make the dreaded event yield the odd surprise.

David Mach raises a smile with a giant sculpture of a woman composed entirely of wire coat hangers, which greets you at the entrance to the main event. This isn't because it's great art, but having just heard that Antony Gormley has been granted RA membership, Mach's Amazonian nude could perhaps be read as a humorous take on Gormley's ever-so-serious metal Quantum men, which, in a skewed sort of way, it reminds you of (even if such a reference is unintentional).

Strangely, it isn't young blood that breathes life into this year's event: one of the better displays can be found in Gallery II, which is dominated by two large Lynn Chadwicks from 1958 and 1961, a homage to the late sculptor who died in April, while a display devoted to students, with a preponderance of dull, painterly figuration, yields the least reward.

The best thing by far this year is the prominence of architecture. Norman Foster puts together an impressive display of architectural models of some of the world's highest skyscrapers, among which Foster's Gherkin stands proud.