Hasta La Ideas

Each year, the Royal College of Art in London hosts the Secret Exhibition, featuring over 2,000 postcard-sized artworks. All are for sale, and all are displayed anonymously. Hidden amongst this year’s selection are works by the likes of John Baldessari, Yoko Ono, Mike Leigh, Grayson Perry, Milton Glaser and Alan Kitching…

The postcards cost £45 each, and can be viewed anonymously at the RCA’s galleries and online between November 18-25. They will then be sold on November 26 at the galleries on a first-come-first-served basis. Each buyer can purchase up to four artworks, and must register in advance to take part (register here). There is also a raffle, where 50 people will win a place at the front of the queue.

Alongside the artists and designers mentioned above, there will also be works on sale by Tracey Emin, Christo, Andrew Logan, Yinka Shonibare, Richard Wilson, Jeffrey Camp, Paul Smith, Dries Van Noten, James Dyson, Kenneth Grange and more. As the postcards are signed on the back though, you’ll only find out if you’ve picked up a work by someone famous after you’ve bought it. All funds raised by the sales of the postcards will go towards the RCA Fine Art Student Fund Award.

Shown here is an early glimpse of some of the works from the show. Obviously we have no idea who they are by, but some of them are rather nice anyway, and that’s probably the best way to approach the exhibition: buy the ones you like the look of, because the artists, even if they aren’t famous now, might well be in the future.

More info on the RCA Secret Exhibition is at rca.ac.uk/secret.