Nostalgia for the 20th century’s latter decades is influencing product categories including tech, gaming and beauty, with art institutions dissecting these themes.

Boasting perennial appeal, pop art and several prominent practitioners – including Roy Lichtenstein and Yayoi Kusama – are squarely in the spotlight this season.

From Aphrodite to ancient queens and Mary Magdalene (the focus of two separate European exhibitions), a clutch of current shows explore depictions of female icons. 

Several exhibitions focus on masters of sculpting fabric, including Madame Grès, Azzedine Alaïa and Iris van Herpen, while elsewhere, topics span the relationship between dolls and fashion, Chinese women’s dress and chintz.

Artists are taking divergent paths to explore how human activity is degrading the planet and how people are being affected.

Leading this season’s shows, London’s Design Museum hosts the first European retrospective for influential artist/stage designer Es Devlin, as well as a showcase celebrating contemporary Black designers.

Exhibitions invite active visitor participation, making audiences integral to the piece. For instance, Ei Arakawa-Nash has people carrying baby dolls through the Japan Pavillion in Venice, turning audiences into caretakers.

Museums are exploring the intersection of popular music with art and design, with the UK’s V&A launching a nationwide tour of highlights from its David Bowie archive, paying homage to Black music-making in Britain, and announcing a 2027 show exploring punk.

Art audiences are listening as much as looking, as ongoing experiments in sound art gather momentum.