Must-see exhibitions for the start of August look back to reflect upon the present. Portraiture and intriguing cityscapes document a world in flux.

Top titles for August 2019 span eco-conscious design, light installation and street photography – interpreting the modern world through creativity.

Issue 90, entitled ‘Living for Today’, is a response to our times, covering innovative upcycled plastic whilst questioning alternative truths in the media.

Through three rooms of video installation, John Akomfrah’s new show at BALTIC is complex and ambitious, examining the borders of film.

Photographed across four years, ‘The Canary & The Hammer’ by Lisa Barnard, shows how our dependence on gold was born.

“History is the art of highlighting whatever is hiding in plain sight.” Hito Steyerl’s installations reveal and question hidden power structures.

RIBA furthers its conversation on how architecture can influence arts, music, film and theatre with ‘The Architects Underground’.

Next Generation is an annual collaboration with London College of Communication, featuring seven new talents entering the photographic sphere.

The renowned Dutch fair returns, providing a space for photographers that are testing uneven ground through bold, abstracted compositions.

Examining the use of photography to question the nature of accepted truths and subjective realities, the images sit between fact and fiction.

Picking up on small strips of colour within manufactured locations, Kyle Jeffers builds up textures through costume, props and layouts.

Studio Brasch works across fine art and conceptual projects, as well as brand campaigns, visual communication and direction.

Sculpture’s new talents consider the boundaries of the medium and its environmental impact, working with data and electricity, metal and sound.

Kyle Thompson produces photographs that depict feelings of solitude and loneliness in today’s hyper-digitised climate.

Rebecca Reeve’s series Marjory’s World comments upon our increasingly urban existence – a sense of disconnect from the natural world.

The German Democratic Republic was a country ruled by surveillance and constant monitoring; photographs provide a window into the era.

A non-profit organisation takes charge of ocean health through major collaborations with artists, promoting plastic-free lifestyles.

Alessio Albi’s close-up portraits draw attention to finer bodily details – capturing them with mesmerising intensity and heightened colours.

Sebastian Weiss is an architectural photographer who sparks dialogues with buildings. Glass and concrete come together in fluid structures.

ING’s annual Discerning Eye exhibition is now open for entries. Illustrator Gill Button is one of 2019’s panel, translating emotions into artworks.