Pieces by David Shrigley and Lubaina Himid grace the walls of government offices

The exhibitions to visit in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Madrid

As the year draws to a close, we look back on a dynamic twelve months across Aesthetica’s platforms, celebrating creativity in all its forms. From the Aesthetica Art Prize and Film Festival to the New Music Stage, Aesthetica Future Now Expo and the pages of Aesthetica Magazine, 2025 has been defined by bold ideas, emerging talent and ambitious work that responds to the world around us. Together, these highlights reflect our ongoing commitment to championing innovation across art, film, music and design, while creating space for new voices shaping the future of contemporary culture. Aesthetica Art Prize The 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize brought together 25 shortlisted artists, whose works span painting, drawing,...

Traditional fireworks contribute to air and noise pollution
 
Biodegradable fireworks, light shows, and drones can offer an alternative and cleaner change to the future of traditional pyrotechnics. For hundreds of years, fireworks have meant loud bangs and bright colors in the sky as a way to mark celebrations, like New Year’s Eve, national holidays, weddings, and victories. But what happens after the fireworks fade? Our deep dive explores the current climate of traditional fireworks and the potential of the biodegradable ones alongside drone technology and light shows as cleaner alternatives. Chemically, traditional fireworks get their colors from metals: red from strontium, green from barium, and blue...

What better sentiment can we embrace as the year ends then to hope, often against against hope, for peace and love in a world of chaos?

There are few career paths where a professional mishap leads to great success, but Cecilia Giménez found one. The Spanish artist, who died this week at the age of 94, rose to fame and notoriety in the 2010s for her delightful “restoration” of “Ecce Homo,” a fresco of Jesus in a Zaragoza church. The face that launched a million memes, affectionately known as “Beast Jesus,” may not have inspired religious ecstasy, but it birthed a cultural icon. Today, Staff Writer Isa Farfan commemorates Giménez's life and improbable legacy alongside a selection of “Beast Jesus” stories from our archive.Speaking of icons, Heated Rivalry, the hit Canadian show about two hockey stars who fall for each other...

In 2025, ARTnews published over 2,500 stories. Below is a look back at the 10 most-read stories from 2025, as selected by our audience. For end-of-year coverage, we’ve also got lists of the year’s defining art events and artworks, the best exhibitions in New York as well as roundups of under-recognized artists who got their due and assessments of the year’s major news stories, from the explosion in art heists to the rise of digital folk art. Thank you for reading, as always, and we look forward to seeing you in 2026.

Our columnist gazes into her crystal ball to spot the major trends—from London regaining its lustre to AI fatigue—that are set to dominate the trade over the coming 12 months

When Chen Chuanduan (b. 1994) was a child, he often dreamt of the stars – traversing space, drifting through bubble universes, weightlessly floating towards celestial bodies. Yet, as he grew older, these visions faded – giving way to adult routines and reality. Now, with a camera in hand, he’s recapturing these lost memories through an extraordinary work of docu-fiction: the Everett’s Notes series. This body of work is central to his latest solo exhibition at Fotografiska in Shanghai, The Tacit Measure: Caves, Comets, and Dreams Uncollapsed. Here, Chuanduan takes inspiration from physicist Hugh Everett, whose ideas gave rise to the concept of “multiverses.” This theory – of endless stages where...

Cecilia Giménez Zueco’s reworking of Ecce Homo in her local church inspired memes and headlines

installations that shaped 2025
 
As 2025 comes to a close, this final list in our annual round-up pulls together the installations that shaped the most immersive encounters of the year. Across deserts, plazas, courtyards, coastlines, and museums, artists and designers turn movement, light, sound, and material experimentation into living environments that ask us to slow down, listen, and look again.
 
A single year brought iridescent glass shimmering in the Coachella Valley, a fictional equestrian mystery unfolding inside a New York warehouse, plush flowers blooming under Rockefeller Center’s flags, and a rotating library of 3,000 books glowing at the heart of Milan. Elsewhere, flip-flops became a pneumatic...

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jun aoki lands in beijing with a third louis vuitton flagship
 
Maison Louis Vuitton Sanlitun opens in Beijing as a new flagship by Louis Vuitton, designed by architect Jun Aoki and located within the Sanlitun district. The building introduces an organic, multi-layered glass facade and a vertically organized interior that brings retail, hospitality, and exhibition spaces into a single building.
 
The project extends Jun Aoki’s long collaboration with the House, following earlier works in Tokyo and Osaka. In Beijing, the architect applies a refined approach to surface, enclosure, and daylight, responding to the urban intensity of Sanlitun through material density and calibrated transparency.
images courtesy...

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La storia artistica di Carmine Rezzuti non devo certamente presentarvela io: Rezzuti è un artista che ha saputo raccontarsi, nel tempo, con genio raffinato e una profonda e simbolica narrazione iconografica. Le sue scelte hanno sempre attraversato l’immaginifico, sia quando ha lavorato in esperienze site-specific, sia quando tutto è nato spontaneamente nel silenzio del suo studio, immaginando spazi da contaminare e luoghi da percorrere con estro e originalità.
Carmine Rezzuti, vista d’insieme della mostra “…Di Notte” alla Galleria Frame Arts et Artes di Napoli. Foto di Rita A. Fusco
C’è qualcosa di primitivo e apotropaico nelle opere di Rezzuti, qualcosa che ci appartiene, un’intimità che...

PPAA brings a minimalist home to los angeles
 
Mar Vista is a single-family residence by PPAA / Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados located in a suburban neighborhood near the coast in Los Angeles, California. The house engages monolithic geometries through the interplay of straight and curved lines. With large openings throughout each building, the project lends a measured tension across elevations and interior volumes that registers immediately from the street.
 
The site contains an existing configuration organized around a central rectangular mass and two patios positioned front and back. The intervention works through subtraction within the maximum permitted envelope. Calculated voids and carved to...

So much for watching it for the plot. (screenshot via X)Read with caution: Spoilers ahead!Let me start by saying that I am a cis woman, and I don't know anything about ice hockey except that people on TikTok have started calling the rinks “boy aquariums.” But I, like a large percentage of the show’s women-identifying audience, tore through the first five episodes of Heated Rivalry (2025–ongoing) in less than a day.In just one month, the Canadian gay hockey romance drama, adapted from author Rachel Reid's Game Changers (2019–) novel series, has skyrocketed in popularity and critical acclaim, scoring an impressive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's also responsible for an influx of horny,...

Tristram Hunt, the director of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, has been knighted by King Charles, landing a spot on the UK’s 2026 New Year Honors list. That means Hunt can now officially go by “Sir.” The former MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central and ex–shadow education secretary was recognized for his “services to museums,” according to the UK government’s announcement. Hunt has led the V&A since 2017, where he’s overseen a run of ambitious exhibitions and helped push the museum’s international profile, most notably through the launch of V&A East. The government also highlighted Hunt’s academic background. Before moving into museum leadership, he was a historian and senior lecturer at Queen...

Ey, Tití me preguntó … Why did you touch a historical artifact in a museum? The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico City issued a statement on Saturday, December 27, after Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny touched an artifact on display at an archaeology museum earlier this month. According to INAH and fan accounts, Bad Bunny, whose full name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, posted images of himself placing his hands on a stela, a type of carved stone monument found in former Maya city-states in Mexico and Central America.A fan account posted what it said was a photo of Bad Bunny at the National Museum of Anthropology (screenshot via @benitodata on Instagram)The singer and...

Cecilia Giménez, an amateur Spanish artist most widely known for her errant restoration of a 20th-century fresco that became a viral tourist attraction, has died at the age of 94. Eduardo Arilla, the mayor of the northeastern Spanish town of Borja, confirmed her passing to the local publication Heraldo yesterday, December 29. Giménez had been living in a nursing home in Borja, according to the publication. In 2012, with permission from a local priest at the Santuario de Misericordia church, Giménez attempted to restore a fresco depicting Jesus Christ painted by Elías García Martínez titled “Ecce Homo.” The result of Giménez’s work, a cartoonish distortion of the faded original, was initially...

gambey: A compact intervention within a Paris apartment
 
Gambey, an interior project by Paf atelier and BB architectes, occupies a compact apartment in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, where living spaces are reorganized around a central mezzanine. Rather than reading as a series of separate rooms, the dwelling is experienced as a continuous interior shaped by a single constructed volume that gathers circulation, storage, and programming into one cohesive framework.
 
To create distinct spaces without subdividing the apartment, the French architects introduce a freestanding steel structure that reads as a piece of interior architecture. This lightweight structure rises through two levels and establishes a...

Rosana Paulino was selected as the recipient of the annual BMC Prize, a grant for artists working in the spirit of Black Mountain College. An artist, educator, and researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil, Paulino’s work centers around social, ethnic, and gender issues, particularly foregrounding the histories, myths, narratives, and images of Black women in Brazilian society. Her practice, which spans drawing, embroidery, engraving, printmaking, collage, sculpture, and installation, explores the history of racial violence and the persisting legacy of slavery in Brazil, illuminating the impact of memory on psychosocial constructions. Through archetypes and documents, Paulino blends personal and archival...

Every month, we share opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. Make sure you never miss out by joining our monthly Opportunities Newsletter. Get Published in Artistonish Magazine and Astonish Art Lovers with Your Art!FeaturedThe 66th issue of Artistonish Contemporary Art Magazine will feature contemporary artworks from around the world on vibrant glossy pages in print and online. It offers a chance to share your work with art lovers, curators, and collectors and join an international conversation on creativity and expression. Jury-selected artists will be published in the January 2026 issue, featured on Artsy, receive a certificate of achievement and...

The ten most-"read" stories of this truly f*cked-up year

The Headlines EARLY BATH. The current Istanbul Biennial, titled “The Three-Legged Cat,” won’t continue on as planned following the resignation of its curator, Christine Tohmé. The news was announced by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), which organizes the event. The first phase of the biennial, which ran from September 20 to November 23, spanned eight venues and welcomed more than 600,000 visitors. The second phase, an academic program, was planned for 2026, while the third phase, a second exhibition, was slated for 2027. Now, neither of those planned phases will take place. The biennial’s early end follows a turbulent period for the event. After the advisory board’s 2023...

The current Istanbul Biennial, an ambitious three-part show that recently completed its opening exhibnition, will not stage its remaining programming because the biennial’s curator, Christine Tohmé, resigned. The exhibition “will conclude after its first leg following Tohmé’s decision to step down due to personal circumstances,” the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), a private foundation that manages the event, said in a statement. The biennial, titled “The Three-Legged Cat,” was conceived by Tohmé as “a three-legged structure to unfold over three years,” with an academic program planned for 2026 and a second exhibition set for 2027. The first show ran from September 20 to...

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday. Happy (almost) New Year! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week. Industry MovesFabienne Levy Announces Representation of Amit Berman: His work is currently featured in a group exhibition at the Haifa Museum of Art, on view until January 2026. In 2024, during the Venice Biennale, his work was presented at the Jewish Museum of Venice; one of his paintings was acquired for the museum’s permanent collection.Kevin Umaña Is Now Represented by the Pit: The New York–based artist’s first solo exhibition in...

Blurring the boundaries between architecture, social space, and sculpture, a new bar has arrived on the scene in Rome. Bar Far reimagines a traditional gallery, which happens to be the new location of Villa Lontana, into a visually mesmerizing meeting spot. The name of the show and temporary libations pop-up is a play on the name of Villa Lontana itself, which translates to “faraway villa,” and it’s the latest from artists Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page. From the neon sign on the facade to tables held up by legs and sconces in the form of hands holding candles, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of illustrious art bars like Cabaret Voltaire—the birthplace of Dada in Zurich—or the...

Ivy Lin searches for a slam dunk version of Elvira's Mad Scene from I puritani in the latest "Perspectives on an Aria."

A starry (and potentially annual) Christmas gala lights up Carnegie Hall.

Art fairs remain vital cultural touchstones, offering artists, collectors and audiences a rare space to connect, discover and reflect on the state of contemporary art. In this roundup, we spotlight the most compelling events of 2025, celebrating the ideas, visions and experiences they brought to life. From Togo Photo Festival and Paris Photo to Photo London, PHOTOCLIMAT and Ragusa Foto Festival, this year’s selection spans the globe, showcasing a remarkable range of talent and approaches to photography. Togo Photo Festival Founded and directed by Ako Atikossie and Giulia Brivio, Togo Photo Festival’s goal is to provide international visibility and create new opportunities for emerging photographers from...

I am sure many of us will post the Fledermaus gala, but it doesn't get better than this, even in a Fledermaus gala

Collector David Walsh says budget for long-awaited extension is more than AUS$100m

Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens opens with unmistakable force. The Brooklyn Museum draws visitors into the charged atmosphere of mid-century Bamako, where political transformation and personal aspiration met in the intimate space of a studio. More than 280 works build a world of surfaces and sensations, from elaborately patterned cloth to gleaming accessories and the quiet poise of sitters who understood the camera as a tool of self-realisation. Here, tactility becomes a crucial narrative thread, revealing how material choices shape identity in a moment of development and social change. Keïta’s portraits were made during a period when Mali was moving towards independence and urban life was in rapid evolution....

Molto spesso si pensa che mettere troppa carne al fuoco sia un errore. Creare mostre con numerosi artisti esposti può disturbare l’atmosfera che le varie opere esprimono, influenzandosi a vicenda. Sebbene questo sia vero per la maggior parte delle esposizioni, il caso della mostra Microcosmi, presso Studio la Linea Verticale è di certo un’eccezione. Le sedici opere esposte, tutte di piccole dimensioni, spingono l’osservatore ad avere un contatto ravvicinato con l’oggetto artistico. L’intimità del dettaglio richiama la grandezza che queste opere esprimono. «È nella piccola dimensione che l’infinito a volte si lascia osservare con maggior chiarezza».
AA.VV., “Microcosmi”, installation view...

The UK Treasury will rely on the taxpayer-backed Government Indemnity Scheme to insure the Bayeux Tapestry for an estimated £800 million ($1 billion) while it is on loan from Normandy to the British Museum next year, the Financial Times reports. The scheme, which is administered by the UK department for culture, media, and sport, is […]

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the African Diaspora, also in San Francisco, have announced Cornelia Stokes as inaugural assistant curator of the art of the African diaspora. Stokes brings more than a decade of experience as a curator, educator, and researcher focused on the African diaspora. She will take […]

As we reflect on 2025, we’re taking a peek into our archive to spotlight some of the stories we’re still thinking about. It’s a joy and a privilege to share so much creativity with you each day, and we’re grateful to know you’re out there reading. In case you missed it, check out our favorite art books of the year. —Christopher, Grace, Kate, and Jackie “Bosch Beast No. 14” (2025), paper, paperboard, glue, wire, and crepe paper, 33 × 19 × 14 inches Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’ For Los Angeles-based artist Roberto Benavidez, the art of the piñata is a central tenet of a practice exploring intersecting themes of race, sexuality, humor, sin,...

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Michael Francalanci’s Website
Michael Francalanci on Instagram

As the year draws to a close, we take a moment to reflect on the extraordinary visionaries who shaped our pages in 2025. From evocative portraiture to daring conceptual work, these cover images capture the spirit of contemporary creativity and artistic exploration. Across the past 12 months, each artist has brought their unique voice to the fore, inviting us to see the world anew through colour, form and imagination. Here are the six remarkable photographers that made it onto our cover this year.  Sarah Doyle | The imaginative contemporary photography of Dublin-based Sarah Doyle plays with shapes and colours, to offer up a joyful viewing experience. Maria Svarbova | Simplicity, detachment and symmetry are...

«Gli artisti sono sempre più paragonabili a degli sciamani, perché gli sciamani sono individui che cercano di stabilire dei contatti con altri mondi». Nicolas Bourriaud
La dimensione relazionale dell’arte, ovvero l’idea che l’opera esista e si attivi nel rapporto con lo spettatore, è sempre esistita. Ne parla, già nel XIX secolo, Eugène Delacroix nei suoi diari, dove descrive la triangolazione artista-opera-pubblico servendosi di una metafora metereologica in cui il pittore viene paragonato alla pioggia e il quadro alla nuvola che si forma dalla sua evaporazione, destinata a piovere di nuovo sullo spettatore. Su questo concetto è imperniato il saggio Estetica relazionale, pubblicato nel 1998...

Nel lavoro Il prato del vicino, presentato all’interno di EDICOLA480, Vega Flux – pseudonimo di Chiara Panunzio, pittrice pugliese nata nel 1997 – costruisce un’immagine che non si esaurisce nella dimensione pittorica, ma si apre a una rete di rimandi storici, simbolici e percettivi. Lo spazio espositivo – pensato come soglia permeabile tra opera e città – amplifica il carattere diretto e interrogativo del lavoro, che si impone allo sguardo come una presenza ambigua, capace di attivare letture stratificate senza mai chiudersi in una narrazione univoca.
EDICOLA480, 2025, Vega Flux, “Il prato del vicino”, olio su tela, 120×100 cm, 2023, ph. Danilo Donzelli, courtesy Edicola480
La figura...

Thoughts on the future during festive times

È la prima metà del 2003 quando la Peggy Guggenheim Collection di Venezia organizza una mostra dal titolo “Kandinsky e l’avventura astratta”, in cui l’unica donna presente è un’artista italiana. Veneziana di origine e deceduta nel 1981 (quindi due decadi prima), Bice Lazzari è da tempo ormai ricordata come la prima pittrice italiana dell’astrazione, colei che ha respinto “ogni forma pittorica immobile e socialmente accettata”, come scritto nella presentazione del curatore di questa mostra milanese che ha, tra i suoi meriti, soprattutto quello di volgere il proprio sguardo su un’artista (molto) ingiustamente poco conosciuta. “I linguaggi del suo tempo” è, infatti, il titolo di una...

 
Over the past year we’ve worked hard to make Shutter Hub more accessible than ever. Our community has grown stronger, and we’ve created the greatest number of opportunities in Shutter Hub history.
Here are a few milestones from 2025 that we’d love to look back on with you…
A New Chapter
 2025 was a year of important, meaningful change. To celebrate a decade of Shutter Hub, we completely relaunched our platform as a membership-free, open, and inclusive resource for photographers worldwide.
There was no doubt in our minds that this was the right thing to do and the natural next step, but we didn’t know how people would respond. Your response was incredible! We received so much support from our...

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“I don't aim for my art to be political, but because I have my own perspective and worldview, that inevitably comes through in the art,” says Shyama Golden. Read Silke Tudor's full article on the artist by clicking above.
The post The Nature of Life: Shyama Golden on Art, identity, & The Not So Elusive Catsquatch first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Max Seckel's paintings are all about the details. His landscapes come alive with the messy signs of humanity: a traffic cone standing in a puddle surrounded by a weedy yard; a utility pole teetering behind a dumpster; streams of yellow tape banding around trees. Read more about the article by clicking above!
The post Cracks In the Levee: The Paintings of Max Seckel first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Sean Norvet has long been described as a Renaissance-inspired satirist, a mish-masher of photorealism and cartoons into goofy–gruesome critiques of consumer culture or social media habits or other twenty-first-century concerns. Read the full article by clicking above..
The post Tropical Flavored Nightmare: Sean Norvet’s Paintings Are Reflective Mountains of Disgusting Excess first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

The Ruth Foundation for the Arts has revealed the five winners of its Ruth Award: Yuji Agematsu, Ranu Mukherjee, Will Rawls, Ellen Sebastian Chang, and Anna Martine Whitehead. The prize was inaugurated in 2024 and is given in recognition of North American artists who “are accelerating the field forward, building deeper relationships and connections across […]

The Trump administration, which this past August announced that it would review current and forthcoming Smithsonian exhibitions “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals,” has reiterated its threat to pull funding if the Smithsonian does not comply. Although the Smithsonian provided the White House with documentation in September, Domestic Policy Council director […]

What is the value of knowledge? A coffee shop latte easily costs six dollars or more these days, but peruse any used book sale and you’ll find classics of literature and science for mere cents—published works that have had an indelible impact on culture. In many cases, mass production has rendered the value of books—as objects—at pennies. Used bookstores with buy-back policies often play a vital role in simply being able to properly recycle or dispose of volumes that are no longer salable. Hundreds of millions of books are tossed each year, whether due to overstock, age, or damage, which is an ongoing problem for the publishing industry. “The New American” (2021), hardcover book, acrylic varnish,...

A year-end post highlighting our favourite pieces from every art feature this year. This compilations represents the wide array of talent and perspectives that have come to make Booooooom the community that it is.
We want to thank everyone who took the time to share their work with us this year! Whether you’ve been following us for a while or participated in your first open call with us, you’re presence here means a lot to us.
You can also check out our year-end posts of photography/photographers here, if you haven’t already!
Which artwork was your favourite discovery this year?

From inexpensive, ubiquitous, and utilitarian materials, virtually endless forms and narratives can be created with a bit of imagination. That’s exactly what the show Cardboard: Infinite Possibilities, opening next month at Wönzimer Gallery, aims to highlight. The group exhibition is curated by Ann Weber, whose work Colossal readers may recognize, along with that of Narsiso Martinez and Shigeru Ban. The show also highlights an iconic chair design by Frank Gehry, who died this month at the age of 96, plus contributions from Jodi Hays, Edgar Ramirez, Leonie Weber, Samuelle Richardson, Jabila Okongwu, and more. Frank Gehry, “Easy Edges Wiggle Chair” (1972), corrugated cardboard and hardboard, 34 x 24 x 17...

“I never imagined being a ceramic artist when I was a kid,” Iwamura admits. “I had no interest.” But today, he is a ceramicist living and working in Shigaraki—a small town east of Kyoto and home to one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns. Read the full article on the artist by clicking above.
The post Using Ancient Kilns En Iwamura Builds His Ceramics One Coil At a Time first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Welcome to our annual year-end photography post highlighting our favourites! Going back through every feature from the past year we’ve compiled our top picks of this year’s roundup. As in previous years this collection represents a wide range of talent and approaches.
We want to thank everyone who took the time to share their work with us and participate in our open calls this year. Whether you’ve been following us for a while or are brand new to our membership, you’re an integral part of what makes the Booooooom community what it is.
If you haven’t seen our previous A Year in Photos posts you can check them all out here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011,...

A photographic collaboration between photographer Samuel Pasquie and artist Olivier Charland. It began as an observation of a particular pattern or “quiet repetition” amongst their respective archives. Despite the photographs being taken independently, they nonetheless shared a kind of visual logic. In exploring how individual acts of image-making could converge so often, they look beyond their close, fifteen-year friendship and shared home base, to reflect on “emergence” and the ways in which large-scale patterns can arise from small interactions. As their friend, Samuel Bonneau, writes in the intro text for the book:
“If a resemblance appears, what does it mean? The human mind, primed to detect...