Art Everywhere exhibition launches featuring the UK's most popular artworks

The public's favourites will go on display across 30,000 UK outdoor sites

Grayson Perry and Antony Gormley launch Art Everywhere at Waterloo Station (Getty Images)

Leading artists Grayson Perry and Antony Gormley helped launch the UK’s biggest art exhibition, Art Everywhere, earlier today.

The British public have chosen their favourite artworks for the event, set to take place on more than 30,000 billboards and outdoor sites nationwide from 21 July until 31 August.

From Hockney and Hitchens to Constable and Blake, the most popular shortlist was revealed at London’s Waterloo Station this morning, with one of Perry’s own paintings, “The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal”, among those featuring.

Over 38,000 votes were submitted on Art Everywhere’s official Facebook page and soon, the artworks will adorn stations, bus stops, roadside billboards, shopping centres, motorway services and airports

It is estimated that 90 per cent of the UK population will be able to see one of the artworks at an outdoor site this summer.

Gormley has created a digital artwork especially for the exhibition. “Feeling Material” will be available for the public to download for free and appear on motion screens in the back of over 2,000 black cabs.

“Works in public collections form an important part of our collective visual memory, marking a particular place, time and person,” he said. “It is great that these works are being celebrated and shared in this way.”