How Kylie's rear erases the RA's chocolate box reputation

In the courtyard of the Royal Academy, a sculpture of a semi-naked man stands on a plinth and breathes fire at admiring tourists.

Inside, the architect Norman Foster is also teetering on a plinth and pouring forth about the joys of living high above the ground. Lord Foster is one of the curators at this year's Summer Exhibition, a 235-year annual tradition that is fast throwing off its former reputation for indulging the chocolate box creations of the Sunday painter.

Instead of the demure watercolours of the amateur artist, the Summer Exhibition's senior hanger, Fred Cuming, has this year drawn together the works of a diverse range of painters and sculptors from esteemed Academicians to art students. Kylie Minogue's famous bottom features in a photographic print by London artist Dilek O'Keefe. The work (priced at £475) mocks the Australian singer's song-writing talents by scrawling "na na na nan na na na, na na na nan na na na", the chorus from the hit "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", on her palm as a reminder.

Ivor Abrahams has sculpted a 2m-high painted chicken with human toenails, and Mauro Perucchetti's exhibit is of a crucifix made from clear resin and filled with coloured jelly babies.

David Mach is the star of the show. His Arm's Length statue of a woman made from wire coat-hangers, priced at £80,000, won the Jack Goldhill Award for sculpture. Mach's mixed media works, such as Mmm ... Big Ben ... What a whoppa!, bring a saucy seaside postcard humour to his views of London. He is also responsible for the courtyard firebreather, entitled Hell Bent, which could do with a bit more lighter fuel. The statue resembles Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Holly Johnson himself has two works in the exhibition - one a lithograph of a fairground carousel unicorn bearing a picture of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the other a rain-stained Union Jack (both priced at £500).

And then there are the architects. Often confined to the margins of the Summer Exhibition, this year they provide one of the star draws with a model village of skyscrapers, compiled by Lord Foster. He said he accepted that many people were afraid of living in high-rise buildings after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001. "Everything is vulnerable. We can make buildings safe but in the end the high-rise building is no more safe than being in an airport, a sports stadium or a shopping mall," he said.

The exhibition ends with a room full of the autobiographical works of Anthony Green, who uses a chandelier, a ticking clock and everlasting flowers to portray his family on their journey to heaven.

One tradition unlikely to be broken is that the public will love the show and the critics will pan it. One "expert" had already written the exhibition off yesterday as "the largest festival of bad art in Europe".

The Summer Exhibition runs at the Royal Academy of Arts from 2 June to 10 August.