Christopher Ræburn and Artist Charlie Warde have joined forces for a new creative collaboration that will debut at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026.

The presentation marks the first public expression of a partnership that has evolved over more than fifteen years of friendship, shared interests and creative exchange. While the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition will provide the first opportunity to view the resulting works, the collaboration is intended as the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between the two practitioners, with further projects planned beyond the exhibition.

Ræburn and Warde first met in 2009 after Liberty London sold out Ræburn’s debut collection of parachute outerwear. Intrigued by the work, Warde tracked down the designer and visited him at his Hackney Wick studio, beginning a friendship rooted in art and fashion and strengthened by a shared fascination with post-war architecture.

Their paths have crossed repeatedly ever since. In 2017, Ræburn dressed Warde for his week-long performance Concrete Island, which was abandoned on its final night owing to its proximity to the Grenfell Tower fire. In 2020, Ræburn became one of the invited “Players” in Warde’s Play Time project, a collaborative artwork constructed from fragments of the now-demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate. Today, both artist and designer are represented in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, with works held in its fine art and fashion collections respectively.

Despite this longstanding relationship, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition represents the first time the pair have developed and exhibited a body of work together.

The collaboration launches with two new works, REFUGE POINT and INFLECTION POINT, both created using original military silk escape maps dating from the 1950s. Originally issued to armed forces personnel as part of emergency survival kits, these maps were designed for navigation in hostile territory. Printed on silk rather than paper, they were lightweight, durable, portable and versatile enough to function as garments or protective equipment when required.

Across both works, Ræburn and Warde intervene directly onto these historic artefacts using the graphic language of British Ministry of Defence muster-point signage. Through inversion, repetition and recontextualisation, familiar symbols of organisation and protection are transformed into reflections on displacement, solidarity, movement and refuge.

The choice of material is central to the collaboration. Long associated with Ræburn’s practice of reworking military surplus, the maps also resonate with Warde’s longstanding interest in architecture, memory and the social histories embedded within objects. Together, the artists approach the found artefacts as both historical documents and contemporary canvases, connecting past and present through a shared visual language.

Presented at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, REFUGE POINT and INFLECTION POINT serve as the opening chapter of a broader collaborative programme between Warde and Ræburn. Rooted in a friendship that began in an East London studio over fifteen years ago, the project reflects a shared commitment to material reuse, cultural memory, and art and design's enduring capacity to create new connections across disciplines.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London
16 June – 23 August 2026