The Power List 100 | Art Review

ArtReview's Power 100 is an annual ranking of the most powerful people in Art and is always worth a look. 

The top five in the 2023 Power 100 listing by ArtReview

Similarly it's always worth a read of what ArtReview are saying about what "they" have noticed has changed - see Gauging spheres of influence and schools of thought is about more than momentary fads - with "They" being their secret global panel of c.40 people who are spread around the globe.

The Power 100 list is where, every year, ArtReview exposes, enlists and accounts for the workings of international contemporary art. Not in the usual sense in which ArtReview does this (critical analysis and general commentary about the artworks that are put forward into the world), but rather in terms of the more general infrastructure of the artworld. Why is certain art being made or seen? How is it seen? (And the reversed version of those two questions.) Who decides what is seen? And what, more generally, is the relationship between making and seeing? It’s an attempt to illuminate some of the professionalised artworld’s obscured corners and track its shifts and changes over the past 12 months.

The general themes coming through strongly are as follows:

• change is happening
• an adjustment of the places which influence
• art has a purpose with artists as activists
• an increase in the number of artists who are outside the European–North American axis of influence
• establishment figures regain prominence - as the world recovers from the Pandemic - and remain focused on the luxury / high stakes art market
• gallerists on the list tend to be associated with multiple outlets/locations

I have to confess I haven't got a clue about most of the names. How about you?