Mayfair Art Weekend 2018

Let's be honest. The province of super high-end galleries, dealers, luxury retailers and designer jewelers, Mayfair is not the first place you'd look for accessible art. But for one weekend in the summer more than 40 galleries and auction houses across Mayfair and St James's throw open their doors to the public to stage a weekend of free art events, exhibitions, tours and talks.

From Old Master paintings to cutting-edge contemporary art, Mayfair Art Weekend 2018, in collaboration with lead partner Royal Academy of Arts, celebrates the diverse offering of this historic cultural district.

Art, design, music, drink and food: Mayfair Art Weekend will be quite an affair – and, what's more, it's completely free. Here are our Mayfair Art Weekend 2018 Highlights.

Gallery Hop! 29 June (6pm - 9pm)

If you can't decide which gallery to snoop around first, join the Mayfair Art Weekend Gallery Hop! Hosted by leading experts, the Gallery Hop! is a curated tour of the best exhibitions in participating galleries. Please click here to sign-up for free.

The Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy serves as the central hub of the weekend's free festivities. As part of its 250th anniversary celebrations, the RA also hosts its own weekend-long festival, celebrating the area as an arts district and vibrant hub of creativity and craftsmanship.

Highlights of the RA Festival:

Rose Wylie's flags hanging over Bond Street

Long Artist Lunch

On Sunday 1 July between 12 - 5pm, Mayfair Art Weekend will host the Long Artist Lunch in the Royal Academy Burlington Gardens. This free public event will be hosted by acclaimed artist Bob and Roberta Smith with tapas style food served by art world caterers Company of Cooks. Guests are invited to drop in and join in the hourly discussions and artist performances taking place at the table.

Summer Exhibition

Mayfair Art Weekend also coincides with the 250th Summer Exhibition, the world's largest open submission exhibition. For the first time, the Summer Exhibition, co-ordinated by guest curator Grayson Perry, spans The New RA and spills onto the streets of London’s West End. Look out for the installation of over 200 flags designed by Royal Academicians Rose Wylie, Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker and Joe Tilson, as well as the gorgeous display of art installations in the shop windows of Bond Street. For the duration of the weekend, Burlington Arcade will also host a major installation of 2000 paper flowers, by French designer Mathilde Nivet.

Please click here for the full RA programme of events

Fashion Exhibition: Victoria Beckham

The fifth edition of Mayfair Art Weekend sees a number of returning designer fashion brands and luxury retailers join the festivities. Among them is Victoria Beckham, who, this year, will host an Old Masters exhibition inside her Dover Street Market store, in collaboration with Sotheby's. Beckham has hand selected a number of works to be displayed among her lauded designs in her Feu De Bois scented retail space. Works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens and fourteen other ridiculously impressive artists will be on display from the 22nd – 27th of June.

Top Tips:

• Plan ahead and browse the full Mayfair Art Weekend programme of events here.
• Look out for the MAW volunteers, wearing greeny-blue MAW T-shirts. For the duration of the weekend, they will be milling about the RA and the streets of Mayfair to answer any questions you may have.