Creative Portraiture

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

Playing in Colour

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

Sense of Magic

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

Reflection:
The December / January Issue

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

Legacy in Pictures

In Andoni Beristain’s hands, the camera becomes a tool for remembrance and healing, honouring love and loss through 63 symbolic compositions.

Human Expression

Klaus Vedfelt’s Elevate is an invitation to occupy open horizons, where dancers and acrobats rise and fall, jump and fly, against bright blue skies.

Urban Geometry

Blue tones, dark contrasts and buildings are the hallmarks of Marco Wilm’s visual style, finding symmetry and balance within busy cityscapes.

Routes Transform

Charting one artist’s journey from Florida, all the way to Maine, whilst examining the US landscape, as a site of mythmaking, nostalgia, fracture and longing.

Alejandro Cartagena:
Ground Rules at SFMOMA

Alejandro Cartagena reveals how the camera can be used as a tool to probe questions surrounding urban expansion and public infrastructure in Mexico.

Seeds of Hate and Hope:
Bearing Witness Through Art

A new show at Sainsbury Centre explores how seven different artists have witnessed, experienced and responded to conflicts with powerful artworks.

Witnessing the Ephemeral

Each year, the UK experiences an average of 156 days of rain. That’s almost every other day. It was during one of these downpours that…

Boundless Storytelling: The Visual Art of Lin Cheng

“You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.” These words from Margaret Atwood, author of The…

Meet the Aesthetica Art Prize
Shortlist: Brendan Dawes

Brendan Dawes is a British artist and designer renowned for his playful yet thought-provoking explorations of data, technology and objects

Movement, Memory and Meaning

Zorg (Yifan Jing) (b. 1998) is a London-based visual artist whose practice is grounded in field research. A graduate in illustration from Goldsmiths, University of…

Winter Exhibitions:
Five Shows to See

Our top five shows this winter encourage audiences to see the world from new and exciting perspectives, rewriting established and traditional narratives.

 The Power of Photography:
Reflections on the RPS Awards 2025

The winners of the 2025 RPS Awards have been announced. It is the world’s oldest photography prize, celebrating the very best of the medium.

Creative Legacies

In the final film of our MPB: The Next Shot series, director Theo Tennant reflects on how his camera shaped his BAFTA Cymru-winning documentary.

Cristina De Middel:
Journey to the Center

Cristina De Middel’s poignant series Journey to the Center, presents a compelling exploration of migration, shared myths and human resilience.

Groundbreaking Perspectives:
2025 Jarman Award Winners

The winners of the 2025 Jarman Award have been announced. This year, the illustrious prize is shared between Morgan Quaintance and Onyeka Igwe.

Meet the Aesthetica
Art Prize Shortlist: Sam Metz

Artist Sam Metz creates sculptures that centre neurodivergence and chronic pain, challenging conventional perceptions of contemporary art.

Chiharu Shiota: Threads
of Memory & Migration 

A new show traces over 20 years of the Chiharu Shiota’s practice, bringing together drawings, sculptures, photographs and huge installations.

Redefining Life

Alive, a new publication from Thames & Hudson, considers the design and technological innovations that are redefining what it means to be human.

Close Enough: Belonging,
Intimacy & Representation

A new show at C/O Berlin presents the work of 12 women photographers from Magnum Photos, whose work questions what it means to be “close enough.”

Staged, Crafted & Constructed:
Expanded Photography

We bring you five contemporary artists who are experimenting with collage, photomontage and digital composition to expand what an image can be.

Meet the Aesthetica Art Prize
Shortlist: Michelle Blancke

Michelle Blancke meticulously uses the camera as a way to preserve quiet moments of wonder and introspection, creating otherworldly images.

Constructing the Past

Julia Fullerton-Batten constructs images that hover between historical record and myth, where the light, costume and gesture expand the detailed narrative.

Behind the Camera

In the next installation of our MPB: The Next Shot series, filmmaker Xiona Li considers how the equipment we use influences our creative paths

The Timeless Power of the Portrait

This year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize winners have been announced, featuring images that showcase character, history and context.

New Music Stage:
Talent & Discovery

We look back at the inaugural New Music Stage, which spotlighted ten bold emerging artists and audiences all-day access to live performances.

Between Reality and Imagination

Konstantin Chaykin is an internationally renowned watchmaker. Now, he’s turning his attention to painting his mechanical creations.

Surrealism in Focus:
Image-makers to Know 

These five contemporary artists continue the rich tradition of Surrealism, creating photographs that give the movement a fresh and modern perspective.

Quiet Resistance

A new exhibition at New Art Exchange presents photographs by Heather Agyepong, who explores rest as an act of personal and political resistance.

The Future of Creativity

We look back at the 2025 Aesthetica Film Festival, packed with more than 300 films plus VR, games, podcasts and the inaugural New Music Stage.

Joel Meyerowitz:
Era-Defining Photography

Joel Meyerowitz wins Sony’s 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize, an award that recognises people who have shaped lens-based art.

Evocative Storytelling

Elina Brotherus creates ambiguous staged portraits, often documenting a solitary figure from behind as they look out at the sweeping Norwegian landscape.

Meet the Aesthetica Art Prize
Shortlist: Susanna Wallin

Susanna Wallin’s multi-media work asks questions about what we do with our time and what we can gain if we view the world from a new perspective.

For All At Last Return:
Oceans as Archive & Imagination

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art presents a major new group exhibition on our marine ecosystems, from near-shore and intertidal zones to coral reefs.

Physical Encounters

Dutch-born artist Gís Marí creates large-scale abstract paintings inspired by the natural world, that explore colour, texture and movement.

A Shared Vision

In the next installment of our MPB: The Next Shot series, filmmaker Hilary Powell shares the joy in passing on a camera to give it a new lease of life.

Lygia Clark:
Art as Experience

A new retrospective of pioneering artist Lygia Clark at the Kunsthaus Zürich features more than 120 original pieces alongside 50 participatory replicas.

Science/Fiction:
A Non-History of Plants

A new exhibition at Foto Arsenal Wien brings together over 40 artists who foreground plants and nature as protagonists in contemporary art.

Liz West: Chromatic Encounters

Liz West is renowned for installations that play with light and colour. Her latest work transforms a Manchester building into an immersive experience.

Contemporary Portraiture In Focus

These artists use symbolism, colour theory, paint strokes and bubbles to tell stories, uncover hidden meanings and encourage us to see differently.

Hongqian Zhang: Curating with Care

For Hongqian Zhang, founder of ArtFlow Studio, becoming a curator was a necessity. “I witnessed many talented artists – especially from East Asian backgrounds…

The Stillness of Life

A new publication foregrounds the landscape and still life photography of Don McCullin, an artist best-known for documenting global conflicts.

Time, Memory & the Future:
Saatchi Gallery Marks 40 Years

Over its four-decade history, Saatchi Gallery has continuously reshaped the cultural landscape. Its anniversary exhibition celebrates this legacy.

Cosmic Exploration

Fotografiska Tallinn’s latest exhibition features 14 acclaimed artists who are grappling with questions around who experiences space, how and why.

Saodat Ismailova: Suspended States

Melted into the Sun, opening at BALTIC, is a meditation on thresholds, transitions and the suspended state where history and myth converge.

Abstracted Visions:
Photographers to Know

Spotlighting five contemporary creatives, previously featured in Aesthetica, who are using microscopes, mirrors, paper and more to reimagine photography.

Technological Worlds:
Ayoung Kim at MoMA PS1

Three acclaimed video installations are being shown together for the first time in New York, using video game engines to hold up a mirror to the gig economy.