Gifts for Art Lovers

10 gift ideas for culture lovers this season. 2021’s list includes gallery memberships, photobooks, subscriptions and camera accessories.

Contemporary Surrealism

Nearly 100 years since its inception, artists continue to be inspired by Surrealism. From dreamworlds to suburbia, these images show what it looks like today.

Graphic Murmurations

Søren Solkær captures the extraordinary phenomenon of starling murmurations, the mass collective swell and flight of thousands of birds.

Galvanise:
The December/January Issue

This issue of Aesthetica is dedicated to perseverance, resilience and determination. In the face of anything, we have power to change.

Ecological Disturbance

Ingrid Weyland’s collage compositions tap into the age of Anthropocentrism, with human hands literally altering ecosystems from the inside out.

Satirical Photomontage

Harriet Moutsopoulos (aka Lexicon Love) creates digital collages that manipulate the origins of images, unsettling the viewer.

Worlds Transformed

Karen Constine subverts the LA landscape using an infrared camera. Deserted suburban streets are transfigured into surreal planes.

Acts of Preservation

David Benjamin Sherry’s large-format images, shot in hyperreal monochrome, depict sites that were threatened during Trump’s administration.

From the Orchard

William Mullan and Andrea A. Trabucco-Campos offer highly stylised portraits of apples: the fruit that has long symbolised knowledge and power.

Journey into Colour

Kate Theo places characters in their own surreal worlds. Concentric circles hover like ellipses alongside balloons and golden cages.

Lines of Production

Kevin Krautgartner’s series captures large-scale tulip agriculture from above. Aerial shots depict rows of flowers like striped barcodes.

Creating an Archive

The American South has diverse and complex histories. What happens when 16 photographers are invited to picture the region over 25 years?

Ethics of Consumption

Foto/Industria biennale offers a provocative glimpse at what we eat, how it’s presented and its larger cultural impact, from field to the table.

Exploring Deep Time

Palaeoclimatology includes the study of ancient climates. Noémie Goudal foregrounds the larger narrative of Earth’s 4.543-billion-year lifespan.

A Celebration of Identity

In March 2021, Nadine Ijewere made history when she became the first woman of colour to shoot a Vogue cover in the magazine’s 125 year history.

Technological Revival

In July 2016, Japanese electronics company Funai Electric ceased production of videocassette recorders. Danil Tabacari is inspired by its legacy.

A 20th Century Lens

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation offers snapshots of everyday life in Europe and North America during the 1960s and 1970s.

Collective Movement

Montréal-based photographer Sean Mundy creates minimal, conceptual imagery in which groups of nameless figures gather – and break – formation.

Portraits in Nature

During lockdown in New York, strolling in Central Park, Donavon Smallwood captured “candid portraits of Black people at ease in nature.”

Aesthetica Archives:
Urban Abstraction

The number of “megacities” – with over 10 million inhabitants – is projected to rise from 33 in 2018 to 43 in 2030. Five new artists capture urban spaces.