This month, Aesthetica opened its 20th Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition. Running until November, the show is landmark moment, celebrating two decades of shaping the global contemporary art landscape. Since 2007, the Prize has established itself as one of the UK’s most influential platforms for emerging and mid-career artists. Far from a conventional competition, it identifies and nurtures talent at a formative moment, providing recognition that often propels artists onto the international stage. The exhibition at York Art Gallery is an opportunity for audiences to experience ambitious and immersive works, curated by Cherie Federico, Director of one of the UK’s leading art publications.
The 2026 Prize presents 20 shortlisted artists whose work spans sculpture, installation, video, photography and film. Together, they confront the biggest issues facing humanity today, from the advancement of technology, the existential realities of climate change, the deep scars of colonialism and the ongoing fight for gender equality and racial justice. In photography, Kazuaki Koseki captures the flashes of the Himebotaru, fireflies native to the Japanese forest of Yamagata, whilst Jarett Murphy documents surreal, nocturnal landscapes, both shaped by and resistant to human intervention. Artist films by Neil Armstrong, Magid Magid and Neville Gabie examine our contemporary moment, considering migration, identity and belonging. Meanwhile, Katharine Dowson recreates the surface of the HIV virus, producing eight laser etched blocks to represent the dispersed yet interconnected efforts of scientists and laboratories across the world as they work together to eradicate the illness.
This year’s winners are Felipe Castelblanco, who received the Main Prize, and DIVA, for the Emerging Prize. The two were decided by a panel of jurors from V&A, The Photographers’ Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Whitworth and the Royal Academy of Arts, among others. Castelblanco’s powerful two-channel video, Tunda: A Quantic Plant and the Devil’s Breath (2025) explores the entangled histories of plants and colonial extraction. Viewers see an Indigenous man thrust from the Colombian Amazon to the Swiss Alps, drifting between vision and reality. For the Emerging Prize, DIVA’s Memoria 2020: When Memories Are No Longer Enough (2025) reflects on the artist’s identity as a Black French woman in New Orleans through the lens of another diasporic experience: a Mardi Gras Indian Queen. The work explores how artistic archives, cultural memory and testimony shape belonging.
The exhibition follows four landmark exhibitions across the region, celebrating the Aesthetica Art Prize’s 20th anniversary, which brought together 50 artists whose work reflects the urgency and complexity of life in the 21st century. Presented at Mercer Gallery, Skipton Town Hall, Scarborough Art Gallery and Woodend Scarborough, each show contributes to a broader curatorial framework structured around four thematic chapters: Future(s), Perception, Intervention and Transformation. Those featured include figures such as Edgar Martins, whose work is held in major collections such as the V&A and who has represented Macau at the Venice Biennale. Heather Agyepong, represented in collections at the National Portrait Gallery and Autograph ABP, brings a practice recognised through nominations such as the Prix Pictet and Paul Huf Award, alongside commissions from Tate Exchange and the Mayor of London.
After 20 years, the Prize continues to champion bold, innovative voices in contemporary art. The exhibitions offer a platform for emerging artists alongside those who are shaping the international discourse, highlighting the Prize’s unique role in fostering dialogue across media, geography and cultural context. It is a testament to the Prize’s significance in the national and global art landscape.
States of Becoming: Aesthetica Art Prize 2026 is at York Art Gallery until 15 November: yorkartgallery.org.uk
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Kazuaki Koseki, Hotarubi -Summer Fairies (2023).
2. Alexis Pichot, from Marche Céleste series (2016-2017).
3. Jarrett Murphy, The Ecotone.
4. Kazuaki Koseki, Hotarubi -Summer Fairies (2023).
5. Alexis Pichot, from Marche Céleste series (2016-2017).
