By Kelly Shephard BBC World Service

Big cats with torn ears, architectural miniature worlds and giant bronze walnuts all find a home at London's Royal Academy.

Despite vague attempts to smarten it up, this year's Summer Exhibition remains deliciously eclectic.

Wire-framed figures stand next to metal horses, whilst Quentin Blake sketches jostle alongside homage's to Elvis.

Intimate

Billed as "the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world", every year the show draws together a wide range of new work by living artists.

This year is no exception, with the works of the famous, infamous and simply unknown hanging next to each other.

Bold, bright abstract canvasses nuzzle next to natural forms, while bohemian still lives and self-portraits create cosy, intimate corners.

Cool: A sculpture and refrigerator in one

Nowhere else would visitors expect to see traditional seascapes in one room and Allen Jones's provocative, although predictable, fibreglass women in another.

Previously described as "an artistic jumble sale", this year the usual policy of hang them high to pack them in has given way to a lighter, more airy approach.

In an attempt to bring method to the madness, some of the collection has been organised by artist, materials and themes.

A wooden runway divides the floor space in a gallery full of sculptures, whilst the pictures in another are hung in what the organisers describe as, "professional but not too solemn" a fashion.

Reassuring

With the majority of the 1,000 exhibits for sale, amusement can also be found in deciding which works to take home with you.

Images are for sale

From Malcolm Whittaker's Wrapped Wasps installation to Tom Phillip's haunting We Are The People photographs, there are pieces to suit most tastes.

In spite of the diversity there is something faintly reassuring about the Summer Exhibition.

Like revisiting a holiday destination, going may not seem as exciting but when you get there you realise that it is still the same quaint place that you visited last year.