A Neon-Soaked City

In 1976, photographer Greg Girard arrived in Tokyo. “Blade Runner-esque” had yet to enter the lexicon, and the resulting photographs were mesmerising.

Into the Imaginary

James Tralie’s images are windows into the imagination: otherworldly aquatic dreamscapes and relaxing, plant-filled environments.

Creative Celebration

Thandiwe Muriu is passionate about celebrating and empowering women, creating bright and bold works rooted in self-love, history and identity.

Imaginary Table Settings

Confetti soup. Soap soup. Cloud soup. Rain soup. Miguel Vallinas Prieto’s Suppen series visualises what happens when we let the imagination run wild.

Fresh Visions

This summer, Fotomuseum Antwerpen takes the temperature of Belgium’s photographic talent, highlighting its most promising practitioners.

Femininity Reframed

Fotografiska charts a visual history of Black women in art and culture – from colonial images to new works by female and non-binary artists.

Colour, Light and the Street

There’s a palpable sense of movement in Francesco Gioia’s visual world, as inhabitants pound pavements or hail taxis, bathed in contrasting light and shadow.

Engaging with Nature

Emerging photographers from the Netherlands focus on our relationship with other living creatures, as well as our role within ecosystems.

Colour Photography

Decades before Instagram filters were a twinkle in the idea of a smartphone, Joel Meyerowitz developed a mesmerising, otherworldly palette.

Dynamic Arrangement

Tekla Severin is known for seeking, and finding, complementary colours within her surroundings, offering carefully curated mises-en-scène.

Stepping into Dreams

In Erik Johansson’s surreal compositions, figures jump off from ledges with only a single balloon in hand; escalators emerge from forest floors.

Digital Playgrounds

The idea of interplanetary travel continues to make headlines. Borja Alegre’s three-dimensional renders encourage us to imagine other worlds.

Layers of Complexity

Alec Soth has become synonymous with the American landscape, traversing and capturing its diverse geography for over two decades.

Looking to Nature

Gjert Rognli takes a photographic journey into deep forests and across misty waterways – where surreal phenomena guide the viewer through the unknown.

Formal Symmetry

Alexander Grombach’s images document patterns in urban and cultivated landscapes, concentrating on symmetry and the tenets of visual harmony.

Bold Social Commentary

Cape Town-based artist Tony Gum pushes the boundaries of selfie culture, exploring tradition and heritage as well as mass-commercialisation.

Illusory Technologies

Six of the world’s most revered NFT artists come together in a physical exhibition, showcasing the best in digital renders and built environments.

Ambiguous Composition

Elina Brotherus’ self-portraits are playful, poised and open to interpretation, surveying the image of the Rückenfigur – a figure seen from the back.

Dramatic Alterations

Maciek Jasik’s series, The World With Us, overlays hyper-real colour palettes onto rock formations, splicing, blurring and modifying the geography.

The Power to Unite:
The August/September Issue

Our latest issue is a way to make sense of the present moment. Much of this magazine is about ever-changing landscapes: physical and virtual.

Aesthetica Art Prize:
Tips for Submitting

There are just three weeks to go before the £10,000 Aesthetica Art Prize closes for entries on 31 August. Here is an essential guide to entering to award.

Artificial Ecosystems

Contemporary artist Anicka Yi collaborates frequently with scientists of different disciplines: microbiology, information technology and perfume.

What’s On: Photography in 2022

Our six-monthly view spans the globe, from the Wolfgang Tillmans retrospective in New York to a climate-conscious exhibition in Vienna.

Hyera Lee: Video Profile

Hyera Lee is an artist and enlightened spiritual guru based in South Korea. For the past 16 years she has helped to heal the pain of many of her students and has been leading them towards enlightenment. She uses painting to assist the students who struggle to accept their egos without judgement.

Glow in the Dark: Nocturnal Scenes

Lightbulbs have completely transformed how we live, work and play. Here are five Aesthetica Art Prize finalists who play with light in the darkness.

Light, Shadow, Sculpture

Illusions, reflections and tricks of the light are entrancing. From mirrored sculptures to neon, these Aesthetica Art Prize finalists do exactly that.

Art, Life, Imitation

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” European Cultural Centre’s exhibition in Venice examines the world through this lens.

Layers of Rhetoric

Herd immunity. Minimise the spread. Stockpile. Staycation. Quarantine. Bindi Vora’s photomontages explore the language of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Visualising Data

Five Aesthetica Art Prize finalists have found inventive ways of turning information into something more: installations, photographs and sculptures.

Transformative Sculptures

Pioneering sculptor Ruth Asawa believed in the power of art to change lives. Modern Art Oxford explores her dedication to education and advocacy.

Engaging with the Elements

Fujiko Nakaya is best known for making sculptures out of water.  For six decades, she has challenged definitions of art – formulating ethereal clouds.

Meaningful Architecture

Architizer’s annual A+Awards show how democratic design can have a positive impact on everyday life, highlighting the world’s most innovative buildings.

30 Years in the Art World

In 1990, the art world was entering a new era. As Pashmin Art Consortia celebrates its 32nd anniversary, we look back at this period of change.

Behind the Algorithm

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte – an Aesthetica Art Prize finalist – makes searing work about the embedded relationship between real-world and digital bias.

Ilina Mustafina: Video Profile

Ilina Mustafina is a New York-based artist, photographer, and architectural and fashion designer whose works have an organic, authentic and spontaneous focus. Her pieces are softly compelling, offering an innate understanding of light, colour, shadow and structure.

Pushing the Gaze

Lennart Brede’s portraits aim “to get a rare glimpse of what lies beneath the surface” – to reveal the raw and real behind our everyday existence.

5 to See: Les Rencontres d’Arles

France’s annual summer photography festival returns with a searing programme featuring more than 160 artists. Here are exhibitions to look out for.

Playful Encounters

South Korean artist and designer JeeYoung Lee fills a gallery with 400 hand-crafted Ginkgo leaves – and suspends a paper boat from the ceiling.

Connected to Light

Power! Light! at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg highlights bold artworks in which light is used to make sense of political, social and ecological situations.

Cinematic Photography

“Photography preceded cinema, but does this imply that photography is the parent of cinema?” Here, five Aesthetica Art Prize finalists explore this question.

Borderless Imagination

Artists. Programmers. Architects. Engineers. teamLab are the globally acclaimed collective behind today’s most popular immersive installations.

The Power of Colour

Memory, loss and family are central to Heather Evans Smith’s latest series, which is filled with visual metaphors surrounding the colour blue.

Messages in the Landscape

The Songlines of the Seven Sisters is a creation story central to Australia. Now, Berlin’s Humboldt Forum offers a multisensory encounter with the tale.

Synthetic Nature

In 1992, a strange pine tree appeared in Denver, Colorado. Its goal: to remain as invisible as possible, camouflaging an antenna in plain sight.

Aesthetics of Empathy

“Technology is blamed for all manner of societal ills, but it’s what we do with this tool that matters.” Richard Mosse’s images are on show in Germany.

Aesthetica Art Prize 2022:
Winners Announced

Baff Akoto and Yukako Tanaka have been awarded this year’s Aesthetica Art Prize – a celebration of creativity and today’s most engaging practitioners.

Out of the Ordinary

“Cyberpunk” is a sub-genre of science fiction featuring advanced technology. These stories inspired Austin Poon to begin creating 3D digital art.

What’s On: Art & Design in 2022

Aesthetica takes a look at the second half of 2022. We spotlight one unmissable show for each month, in a selection which spans museums worldwide.

Digital Taxonomy

A new botanical encyclopaedia documents plants and flowers seemingly impossible in nature, with digital stems bending and twisting.

Reclaimed Materials

The UK generated 222.2 million tonnes of total waste in 2018. We’re sharing five Aesthetica Art Prize finalists using discarded objects in new ways.