ArtReview published its annual Power 100 list last week. The 16th edition of this important who’s-who list names the most influential people in the art world. This year's list includes artists, curators, gallerists, theorists, authors and more. According to ArtReview, “An individual’s or group’s ranking is based on their international influence over the production and dissemination of art and ideas in the artworld and beyond over the past 12 months. In the 2017 edition, artists who are engaged in exploring radical political ideas feature prominently.”
There are 17 new entrants on the list this year, and of these, six are artists that ArtReview deems to have reached new heights of artworld prominence and power. Several have well-established careers, and a few are relatively new faces. Reviewed here are the six newly powerful artists making their debut on the Power 100.
Joan Jonas, Waltz, 2003
#13 Joan Jonas
With a career spanning nearly 60 years, 80-year-old Joan Jonas is still on the cutting edge of contemporary art. Jonas' mixture of performance art, dance, and video art has been performed in and collected by museums around the world. Among her many accomplishments is having been the sixth woman ever to represent the US at the Venice Biennale. In 2018 she will be the subject of a retrospective at the Tate Modern.
Kara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion, 2001
#56 Kara Walker
Kara Walker is another well-established American artist making the Power 100 for the first time this year. Since winning a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1997 at the age of 28, Walker’s star has continued to rise. Known for her cut-paper silhouettes and works in ink, Walker continues to create controversy through her graphic depictions of the antebellum South. Her large-scale sculptural installation in 2014 at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory, titled A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Mama, became a tourist destination. New York-based Walker is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled, 2014
#68 Kerry James Marshall
Another new name to the list that will be familiar to many is Kerry James Marshall. A fellow 1997 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Marshall has long used his art to converse about the Black American experience. Having forged a path for other artists like Kara Walker, Marshall's work was the recent subject of a 35-year retrospective. Mastry had a critically successful national tour and can now be viewed in virtual reality.
Kader Attia, J’Accuse, 2016, installation view, 2017, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
#75 Kader Attia
A recent recipient of the Joan Miro Prize for Post-Colonial Work, Attia is exhibiting his sculptures and installations internationally at a breakneck pace. French-born to Algerian parents, Attia recently opened a solo exhibition at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany. With four solo shows upcoming in 2018, his work addressing themes of colonialism and migration is proving to be especially resonant in our times.
Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, Store Studios, The Vinyl Factory, London, UK
#81 Arthur Jafa
Arthur Jafa's career has included work as a cinematographer, director of photography, and filmmaker. From having won a Sundance award for cinematography for Daughters of the Dust in 1991, to recently turning his talents to music videos for Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Jafa has maintained his influential status for several decades. Jafa has continued to expand his artistic practice while continually addressing the past, present and future of the African-American experience. His recent popular film, Love is the Message, The Message is Death, is currently on display at the Hirshhorn in the exhibit, “The Message: New Media Works,” with accompanying events this month as part of FotoWeekDC.
Haegue Yang, Series of Vulnerable Arrangements—Voice and Wind, 2009. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council, 2011, © Haegue Yang
#85 Haegue Yang
A South Korean artist based in Berlin, Haegue Yang uses everyday objects to create large sculptures and complex installations. Reworking these mundane objects into new contexts, Yang uses our familiarity to surprise us and force us to think about these items in new ways. Yang's work plays with our ideas of comfort, home, and the ordinary. With her work already in the collections of major museums worldwide, Yang has a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art LA in 2019.
