Soak in new statue artist installed (8)
I believe the answer is:
saturate
'soak' is the definition.
('saturate' can be a synonym of 'soak')
'new statue artist installed' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates an anagram.
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'installed' is an insertion indicator.
'statue' anagrammed gives 'satute'.
'satute' going around 'ra' is 'SATURATE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for saturate that I've seen before include "steep" , "Drench thoroughly, soak" , "Oversupply" , "flood" , "Soak completely" .)