It's not the first time a piece of artwork commenting on Tony Blair's premiership has brought an exhibition into the limelight. Last time we saw 'the Blair effect' was shortly before Christmas when a Banksy image displayed in the window of Santa's Ghetto grabbed the festive headlines.
This time it's Michael Sandle's Iraq Triptych (pictured above courtesy Royal Academy of Arts). The central panel, Expulsion from Paradise, features Blair and his wife Cherie naked outside Number 10 Downing Street. To their left is a stack of corpses and to their right is a scene reminiscent of Abu Ghraib.

Sandle appears exhausted by the press attention: "I'm getting worn out," he exclaims as yet another camera crew herd him into position in front of his work.

But there are many things which make the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition special which don't grab the headlines.

Side by side
As the world's largest open submission show of contemporary art, it displays the work of established and unknown artists together. Paintings are numbered, so the eye is drawn to what it finds interesting rather than famous names.

In the first room, for example, are several famous exhibitors: a Jasper Johns (displayed for the first time at the Acamdey since the late 80s) sits next to an Antoni Tapies, and Gavin Turk's Dumb Candle sits on a plinth next to a Marcus Harvey.

Sandwiched inbetween is the work of London-based Japanese artist Jiro Osugo - a debut which holds its own. Similarly, in a room filled with abstract painting, the oil paintings of student Benjamin Pritchard hang besides acrylics by Frank Bowling.

The idea of discovering new artists and giving them a chance equal to that of their more established counterparts clearly thrills the curators.

Royal Academician Paul Huxley was delighted to discover that one previously unknown exhibitor - David Cooper - was the man who runs the art transport company he uses to cart his own work about.

Many of the works are for sale too. Sandle's Triptych is available for £45,000. Some of the prints, meanwhile, are as little as £60. The prices aren't set by critics or auctioneers or even the academician judges, but rather by the artists themselves; humble pricing may prove the fortune of the discerning art collector in years to come.

Stuffed full
Another thing that marks the show out from other exhibitions is the quantity of work on display. As Victorian illustrations of Academy shows reveal, it is a tradition of the salon to pile work up to the rafters.

Considering there were around 12,000 works submitted this year, the cramming is no surprise. Of these submissions, just 1000 made it through to the first judging stage.

Shortlisted works are then taken to the gallery and 'tried out' in situ. Of the thousand, 800 were hung. The curatorship of a room is a daunting prospect for an artist used to what Huxley describes as the "white box" concept of hanging art.

It's hard to avoid what curator and architect Ian Ritchie describes as a "jumble sale" feel. Somehow, though, despite the quantity, the feeling of light that is the theme of this year's show shines through. And the exhibition's mix of old-established and new-hopefuls lends energy to an eclectic exhibition.

View the gallery