From dense green foliage to obscured portraits, Aesthetica takes a look back at the remarkable photographers that made it onto this year’s covers.

We recommend one show for every month of 2026, spanning retrospectives and group shows across art, design, photography and more. Mark your calendars.

We’re looking back at a year of magazines, sharing the remarkable photographers and creatives who have been part of the publication throughout 2025.

Dance once belonged to the stage. But in the hands of Wayne McGregor, it has quietly begun to outgrow architecture. Somerset House shows audiences how.

Ayo Akingbade’s film explores intersecting narratives of legacy, labour and architecture, focusing on a Guiness factory based in Nigeria.

The latest exhibition at Vitra Design Museum traces more than 100 years of fashion show history, from intimate Parisian salons to today’s digital spectacles.

Aesthetica shares some of the world-class photographers featured during 2025, including Margeaux Walter, Reuben Wu and Tamara Dean.

The photographer’s new book documents massive greenhouses in the USA, Swedish data centres, plus algae, insect and jellyfish farms all across Europe.

We bring you five contemporary photographers who capture people in the landscape, transforming a beautiful view into a compelling narrative.

Marina Abramović is unequivocally one of the most important living artists today. Now, a major retrospective is on display at Albertina Modern.

We highlight five fascinating books from 2025, each one driving forward conversations about the future of contemporary art, architecture and design.

Amerikahaus in Munich foregrounds one of the most exciting photographic voices of recent times, who shows how representation can be a force for change.

Vlad Hrynko experiments with traditional still-life forms and projected light, challenging how we see ordinary objects such as paper and cardboard.

A new group exhibition in London considers the subversive power of humour, wit, pun and playful disruption in contemporary art and photography.

Aesthetica looks back on the insightful and inspiring interviews with artists that have been featured in the magazine throughout 2025.

These selections amplify voices marginalised within the canon, honour posthumous legacies, and tell powerful life stories through sculptural forms.

n the midst of a busy season, we’ve selected five exhibitions that offer a welcome change of pace. They invite viewers to reflect on the passage of time.

Ben Cullen Williams creates digital artworks that questions what self-portraiture and reflection means in an current era defined by generative AI.

London Art Fair returns this January for its 38th edition, bringing together a curated selection of leading Modern and Contemporary galleries.

Artist and photographer Kate Hrynko documents the abstract scenes that are left behind after colourful, painted ice evaporates to become a gas.

Thames & Hudson published a comprehensive new book that spotlights the bold, vibrant photography coming out of Australia and New Zealand.

A new book, published by GOST, brings together the work of Lorenzo Tugnoli, a photojournalist known for documenting everyday life of people in Afghanistan.

Ceilings full of stars: a new book traces the artist’s evolution from early experiments in code-based art to monumental achievements in the public realm.

National Gallery of Canada presents the work of more than 100 photographers, each one documenting the vibrancy of modern city life.

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte is a Mexican-British visual artist, who explores current ideals of progress while acknowledging her indigenous heritage.

Southbank Centre’s outdoor art trail is back for 2025, uniting international artists to rethink the idea of what traditional festive illuminations can look like.

Aesthetica spoke to artist and filmmaker Manjinder Virk, whose new project uses her own family history to explore community, migration and activism.

Tate St Ives presents the work of Emilija Škarnulytė, an artist who blends documentary and imaginary to reveal realities often hidden from view.

Bart Nelissen takes cloud-like digital images and breaks them into small geometric fragments, reflecting our desire to make order out of chaos.

Experiential artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast has created a “digital double” of Kew Gardens’ Lucombe Oak, on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The Turner Prize 2025 has been awarded to Nnena Kalu, an artist best-known for creating bold and abstract site-specific sculptures and drawings.

This show traces how photographers across mid-20th century Africa and its diaspora contributed to broader movements for Pan-African solidarity.

This winter, exhibitions across Europe, the UK and USA showcase influential documentarians, past and present. This list offers a snapshot of what’s on.

Italian artist Sof creates works that invite audiences to interact, shaping and moving the piece to create something that is always in the process of creation.

The inaugural Togo Photo Festival provides an international platform for new and emerging photographers from across Togo and West Africa.

Jack Smith discovered more than 80,000 of his grandfather’s photographs in the family garage, beginning a project to bring the works to light.

In a new immersive installation, renowned artist Hito Steyerl explores multiple narratives united by the recurring and unpredictable element of flooding.

We’re celebrating the final installment of our MPB: The Next Shot series, looking back at four stories of what it means to pass on your old camera.

Liz Miller Kovacs’ bold self-portraits draw parallels between ongoing environmental destruction and the societal objectification of the female body.

A new exhibition at NGV International spotlights the pioneering contribution of women to photography, featuring more than 300 works by over 70 artists.

Introducing a season of ambitious shows that push the boundaries of experiential art, from the 20th century to today’s technology-driven innovations.

The winner of the 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize is Tobi Onabolu. We spoke to the artist about his practice and what it means to receive the award.

A landmark immersive exhibition, part of Bradford 2025, explores how British South Asians carved out new space in society using the power of music.

Michael Kenna draws on ‘shin shin’ – the quiet stillness of falling snow – in a new exhibition of Japanese landscapes at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Brooke DiDonato’s images stretch the boundaries of what is possible, asking us to look at domestic settings, landscapes and everyday objects again.

Ingrid Weyland harnesses scrunched-up paper as a metaphor for humanity’s impact on nature, overlaying forest scenes with twisted print-outs.

Jordan Diomandé shows a masterful command of natural lighting, shooting at golden hour to capture sunlit reflections and dramatic shadows.

The imaginative contemporary photography of Dublin-based Sarah Doyle plays with shapes and colours, to offer up a joyful viewing experience.

Cig Harvey engages all five of our senses, with pictures that bring together bright floral motifs, domestic interiors and figures in the landscape.

The publication thoughtfully examines recent artistic breakthroughs and experiments while exploring possibilities for the future of creativity.