Future Now

100 Contemporary Artists 2018

The Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology celebrates the work of emerging and established practitioners from across the world, inviting audiences to be inspired by a wealth of ideas and perspectives. From Photographic & Digital Art and Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media, to Three-Dimensional Design & Sculpture and Video, Installation & Performance, the works included in this year’s presentation come from diverse locations such as Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Singapore, the UK and the USA.

As the world is increasingly shaped by surveillance and data collection, the human condition has become one of rehearsal and performance. Exploring the wider effects of over-consumption, media stimulation and emotional disconnection, the artworks presented in the 2018 collection call into question new modes of communication, offering reflection upon the era of post-truth, where human autonomy can be reduced to calculable, predictable patterns of behaviour.

Each piece draws upon social and political structures to question the value that we place on the world around us and on ourselves. Selected from over 4,000 artworks, the 100 artists included in this publication look at a range of subject matter, from global financial systems to technology that replicates nature, creating a new vocabulary for life in the 21st century.