Still from Waiting for the Sybil, 2020, Single channels HD film, 9mins 59secs. Courtesy the artist © William Kentridge

SOUTH African William Kentridge (b 1955) is the latest artist to fill the main galleries for a solo blockbuster at the RA in Piccadilly.

It’s the most significant exhibition in the UK so far in the Honorary Royal Academician’s 40-year career. Ambitious and immersive, it features works from the 1980s to today, including early drawings, a mechanical theatre, and performance pieces.

The range is startling, from a film of “two Kentridges” in combative conversation to his charcoals, Drawings for Projection; five of 11 animated charcoal-drawing films are being shown. Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris, from 1989 was an early breakthrough piece.

There are exquisite bronzes; powerful paintings, a new series of tapestries; large flower drawings and distinctive trees. He has a unique way of asking challenging questions, whether on colonisation, genocide or injustice, but is happy to use an exuberant playfulness too.

There is intriguing use of text across many pieces and examples of his collaborations across artistic genres. Don’t plan to pay a quick visit!

• William Kentridge is at the RA, Piccadilly, until December 11. www.royalacademy.org.uk