We analyze the role of spatial electronic correlations and, in particular, of the magnetic fluctuations in Mott insulators. A half-filled Hubbard model is solved at large strength of the repulsion 𝑈 on a two-dimensional square lattice using an advanced diagrammatic approach capable of going beyond Hartree-Fock and single-site dynamical mean-field theories. We show that at high temperatures, when the magnetic fluctuations are weak, the electronic self-energy of the system is mainly local and is well reproduced by the atomic (Hubbard-I) approximation. Upon lowering the temperature toward the magnetically ordered phase, the nonlocality of the self-energy becomes crucial in determining the momentum dispersion of the Hubbard bands and the Green's function zeros. We therefore establish a precise link between Luttinger surface, nonlocal correlations and spectral properties of the Hubbard bands.