Gifts for Art & Culture Lovers

Aesthetica highlights 10 gift ideas perfect for arts and culture lovers this season – including photobooks, magazines and creative experiences.

New Contemporaries:
Art in a Time of Change

Helen Cammock, Sunil Gupta and Heather Phillipson have teamed up to select this year’s Bloomberg New Contemporaries: 55 exciting fresh UK talents.

Meaning in Collage

Pictures of coffee cups, mirrors, water jugs and headphones are each folded up and distorted into Jooeun Bae’s deeply personal montages.

Layered Creativity

Collage has a long history, spanning more than 100 years and seeing big change. Julie Cockburn is part of its contemporary story.

Richness of Colour

Andrea Torres Balaguer’s bold photographic portraits could be mistaken for oil paintings, rendered in garnet reds and emerald greens.

Radiant Geography

Rock formations, volcanic geology and verdant foliage are key to Tom Leighton’s photographs, which traverse holographic and gleaming pools.

Beyond Portraiture

Morgan Otagburuagu is standing up against colourism. He amplifies the beauty of darker skin tones with portraits of Black women pioneers.

Message in the Sky

At a time when it can be hard to decipher “real” from “artificial”, Reuben Wu shows us what it is possible to create on location, using light carrying drones.

Crafting a Memory

Es Devlin explodes the status-quo, pushing artistic boundaries between literature, stage and set design in a major New York exhibition spanning 30 years.

Visions of the Future

NGV Triennial calls for collective activity in the face of climate crisis, with John Gerrard’s ominous digital flags reflecting on the impact of the oil industry.

Striking Landforms

The Gobi Desert is listed amongst the top 10 largest in the world. Jonas Daley’s landscapes capture its imposing rocky mountain ranges in pastel hues.

Power of Experimentation:
The December / January Issue

It’s that idea of the journey being more important than the destination. This issue is dedicated to artists who demonstrate the power of creative thinking.

The Turner Prize 2023:
Winner Announced

Jesse Darling takes up the award with a sculpture-based exhibition that powerfully explores perceived notions of class, Britishness, labour and power.

10 Questions With…
Kristin Bedford

“All I can do is open a door with my photographs.” Kristin Bedford speaks to Aesthetica about her inspirations, and what it feels like to a take picture.

Resilient by Design

Tokyo-based sustainable fashion brand SHOHEI launches a new capsule collection based around the traditional Japanese dyeing process of Kakishibu.

Being Seen

Visibility is at the centre of Guggenheim’s new show. The concept is crucial within the art world, where it unearths issues of access, privilege and opportunity.

Stepping into the Unknown

Erik Johansson’s new show is filled with surreal scenes that hold up a mirror to life online: focused around echo chambers, vacuums and filter bubbles.

Mirrored Architecture:
5 Buildings to Know

From archives to cultural institutions and a concert hall – Aesthetica’s list rounds up contemporary buildings with dazzling reflective façades.

New Possibilities
In Photography

Prateek Arora. Luisa Dörr. Sarfo Emmanuel Annor. We look back at three ground-breaking creatives from this year’s PhotoVogue Festival.

Alternate Realities

Sari Soininen is an internationally recognised Finnish photographer whose neon-coloured photography draws from the hidden depths of the human mind.