Hauser & Wirth’s gallery on Savile Row is a space that has been transformed in many possible ways, but this time the micro environment created for Pipilotti Rist’s show emerged as an unexpected -nevertheless pleasant- surprise.

On 7 February the Hammer Museum presents the first museum survey of LA-based conceptual artist Charles Gaines’ early work. The exhibition, entitled Gridwork 1974-1989, will feature 11 different series of over 80 works and relevant ephemera from the early years of Gaines’ four decade career.

Aesthetica champions literary talent from around the world through its annual Prize for short fiction and poetry writers. Now going into its 9th year, the Creative Writing Award is an exciting and dynamic addition to the literary world.

For the 12th year, London Short Film Festival returns with an outstanding programme of short films. Running 9 – 18 January, the festival aims to prove that the UK is truly a hotbed of film creativity.

India’s premier contemporary art fair returns to New Delhi for its 7th edition. Supported by YES Bank, India Art Fair is one of the most important platforms for facilitating creative dialogue and promoting art trade in the region.

2014 has been a great year for contemporary art exhibitions. The huge range of practices on display demonstrates the variety of artistic approaches being developed across the world. From Martin Creed to Annette Messager, all of the artists listed here demonstrate both skill and thought.

Known for her sculptures Scallop (2003) and In Conversation with Oscar Wilde (1998), Maggi Hambling has established herself as one of Britain’s most significant and controversial painters and sculptors. In her latest exhibition Wall of Water, Hambling returns to the National Gallery.

In the midst of a white snowscape, Joël Tettamanti finds moments of captivating colour. While travelling across Greenland, he discovered objects and buildings which had managed to escape the thick layers of snow engulfing the region.

Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas’ sculptures appear haphazard, disjointed and improvisational – and they are. Inspired by his parental home in Ajusco, a district in the south of Mexico City, he calls the sculptures autoconstruccións.

Oil on canvas painter Margaretha Gubernale creates mystical worlds with the source of her inspiration being nature and philosophy. She has worked for nearly 30 years as an international artist and her work has been exhibited widely.

The second instalment of Lacey Contemporary’s launch of its artists showcases the work of three British painters. Reality Departure explores painting’s ability to capture the world as it is mediated by the human mind.

There is more to Allen Jones than those tables. As if to acknowledge this fact, the curators of this retrospective have placed two of them right at the beginning of the exhibition. Once the shock and awe is over, the show unfolds to reveal the unfailing ingenuity of a British Pop artist.

The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year launches its competition for 2015. The search for the next top UK museum or gallery begins this week, after director of the Art Fund and chair of the judging panel, Stephen Deuchar, revealed the international jury line-up of professionals.

Marie Lund’s new exhibition at Laura Bartlett, her second solo show at the gallery, feels like the most considered and erudite articulation of themes in the artist’s work that has been gaining momentum for a few years now. Lund is interested in the stories objects can tell.

The first instalment of gap in the air festival took place in November with a mesmerising in-situ sound and video piece by noise DJ, artist and researcher Joe Banks. Working under the guise of Disinformation since 1995, Banks has pioneered the use of ‘radio’ noise.

Moving sites in spring 2015, Manchester-based cross art form organisation, Cornerhouse, closes its current space with nine artists, filmmakers and musicians celebrating the iconic venue: Rosa Barba, Niklas Goldbach and more.

In Self, the current exhibition on display at Ordovas Gallery, artistic mastery by four of revered artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, is championed. Rarely seen works deliver over a century of self-portrayal.

Established by fine-art photographer Anouska Beckwith in 2012, World Wide Women is an all-female international collective of photographers and artists which seeks to represent the free spirit of women in the contemporary art world.

The Hiscox Collection comprises approximately 600 works on display across the company’s offices in the UK, Europe and USA. One of the latest acquisitions was 541 días, a photographic series of five portraits by Chilean artist Inés Molina Navea, one of the finalists in the Aesthetica Art Prize.

Film London has announced Ursula Mayer as winner of the 2014 Jarman Award. The Austrian-born filmmaker was selected from a shortlist of 10 visionary and boundary-crossing visual artists working in the UK. An annual celebration of experimentation, the award recognises artist filmmakers whose creative practice defies conventional classification.

The compelling collection of poetry and short fiction in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology unites established and emerging literary talent from around the world, and features the finalists from this year’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Award.

In recent years, the National Gallery of Victoria has been criticised for shying away from traditional “art exhibitions” and instead playing fodder to the masses with its interest in so-called “blockbuster” fashion and photography shows.

There are few musicians who can parallel the aesthetic and imaginative influence of David Bowie – master of storytelling, fantasy and re-invention – over the past five decades. The characters and constructions of Bowie’s imagination have transcended the boundaries of music.

From a casual glance at the advertising for Conflict, Time, Photography you might assume it to be an exhibition of war photojournalism; in fact the concept is far more novel. The images on display show the aftermath (rather than the unfolding of) the conflicts they depict.

Ronchini Gallery’s latest exhibition Home is artist Adeline de Monseignat’s second solo show. Curated by Samia Calbayrac, it offers as its focal point an installation piece constructed from the awnings of the artists’ family home. In conjunction with this architectural centre-piece, mixed media pieces explore the nostalgia of childhood memories.

The end of November saw canvas and canapés meet at the opening night of Diversity: Malaysia Arts. Organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, the evening was a cavalcade of speeches and gift-giving intended to showcase the country’s emerging artists.

The Photographers’ Gallery announces Nikolai Bakharev, Zanele Muholi, Viviane Sassen and Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse as the four shortlisted artists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015. The annual prize, established by the gallery in 1996, aims to recognise and the work of a living artist who has significantly contributed to photography.

The use of physical theatre by DV8 honours the company’s name. Deviating from any traditional performative categories, it sits between finely tuned body language, as in theatre, and the body as language, as in dance. The company’s method is well suited to John, whose script retells verbatim an interview with the show’s eponymous hero.

Latitude Platform for Brazilian Art Galleries Abroad brings an energetic programme to Art Basel. Over the next few days, Latitude will support 15 Brazilian galleries in presenting leading contemporary art at Art Basel’s 13th Miami Beach edition.

Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution and into the heart of a museum inhabited by pieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. National Gallery is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world.

A Hayward Touring Show with support from the Art Fund, Art from Elsewhere brings together works that depict different realities of profound global change. This Hayward Touring exhibition, curated by David Elliott, runs at the Gallery of Modern Art.

Derek Jarman is one of Britain’s most important and ground-breaking artists of the late 20th century. The Jarman Award celebrates some of the most innovative filmmaking in the UK today. The 10 shortlisted practitioners all demonstrate a spirit of experimentation and inspiration.

The December/ January issue of Aesthetica is available to purchase online and in stores internationally. In Issue 62, we focus on the unconventional. It’s a celebration of practitioners who are experimenting in their field.

Widely known for her elaborate collages that explore and subvert cultural preconceptions of the female body and the feminine. Wangechi Mutu’s practice has been described as engaging in its own unique form of myth-making.

From an early age Stephen J.E. Davies was fascinated by aeroplanes and flight, especially when studying the Airfix artworks by Roy Cross and the paintings of Michael Turner, as well as many comic book illustrations. Inspired by these artists, he began to create work.

At the 2001 Tate Turner Prize, Yorkshire-born artist Martin Creed (b. 1968) presented Work No. 227: The lights going on and off. Consisting of an empty room, the work existed as, quite literally, the lights in the room going on and off every five seconds, cyclically submerging the room in darkness.

Maverick filmmaker Derek Jarman bequeathed his experimental 8mm reels to the producer after his death, but having deteriorated, many of Jarman’s works were in danger of disappearing for good.

BAFTA accredited Aesthetica Short Film Festival showcases international short films, highlighting established and emerging filmmakers across 10 genres.

Representations of pop, advertising, psychology and autobiography through the eyes of photographer Anne Collier.

This book is the first dedicated to Lazar Khidekel’s work and explores the importance of Suprematism in his oeuvre.

The Golden Dream tells the story of three teenagers who jump “The Beast”, the train that illegal immigrants board in a bid to reach the American border.

Brit-caper Hello Carter straddles the lines of standard rom-com fare, with a few belly laughs and a healthy amount of meet-cutes along the way.

Nobody Knows Anything is a much more satisfying listen when in reflective mode, but it maintains a satisfying pace and lyrical intimacy throughout.

Opening with the distant ghostly vocals of lead-singer Lyubov, Everything Else Matters is a soothing and dynamic album.

Almond travelled the world waiting for the right lunar phase, using an extra long exposure to capture nature at night. His quiet observance, still by necessity, has produced hauntingly beautiful results.

Robin Williamson returns with his fourth album for ECM, adding to his solo The Seed-At-Zero and his group discs, Skirting the River Road and The Iron Stone.

Though much has changed for Hinson, still recovering from a near-fatal car accident, these songs have weathered the years with bittersweet grandeur and honesty.

Starting out as Man Ray’s protégé in the 1950s, Guy Bourdin’s influential 40-year career was founded on a unique approach to 20th century fashion.

This fascinating insight into the life of prolific installation artist Yin Xiuzhen consists of a number of interviews and revealing photographs.

The Dardenne brothers’ latest film is an insightful examination into the management of a moral dilemma.