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Jeffrey Gibson, installation view of WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT<\/i>, 2024 in \u201cthe space in which to place me\u201d at the U.S. pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2024. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the U.S. pavilion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
In 2024, there were major shifts in the art world. The first headline event came in April, when the Venice Biennale opened, projecting a new cadre of artists into the spotlight. The international exhibition \u201cForeigners Everywhere,\u201d curated by Adriano Pedrosa, highlighted Indigenous and queer artists outside the Western art world, many of whom went on to receive international gallery shows, rolling the show\u2019s influence across the globe. With underrecognized artists such as these gaining new acclaim, 2024 looked like a year of adjustment towards a canon that is, thankfully, growing all the time.<\/p>\n
As art fairs have proliferated across the world and emerging markets develop in importance, art world power is shifting globally, with Middle Eastern and Asian metropolises growing in stature. Against this backdrop, in 2024, artists were often vocal activists for the causes that mattered to them. Influence, for artists this year, was measured not just by what they did within the walls of the gallery, but the collaborations, statements, and impact they made in the outside world. <\/p>\n
Here are Artsy\u2019s most influential artists of 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1970, Addis Ababa. Lives and works in New York and Berlin.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Julie Mehretu by Josefina Santos for the New York Times<\/i>. \u00a9Josefina Santos. Courtesy of White Cube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Known for her frenetic markmaking and meticulously layered paintings, Julie Mehretu cemented her place as one of the preeminent abstract artists in the world this year. <\/p>\n
Her high-profile year was marked by both market and institutional milestones. Insile <\/em>(2013) sold for $9.5 million at the third edition of Art Basel Paris, while her largest European exhibition to date, \u201cEnsemble,\u201d opened at Palazzo Grassi just before the 2024 Venice Biennale and will run through January 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Julie Mehretu\u200b, installation view of TRANSpainting<\/i>s, 2023\u201324, in \u201cJulie Mehretu. Ensemble\u201d at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2024. Photo by Marco Cappelletti. \u00a9 Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection. Courtesy of the artist and White Cube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
If that wasn\u2019t enough to make her one of the most influential names of the year, Mehretu was tapped to create an installation for the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which will adorn the museum\u2019s fa\u00e7ade when the campus opens in 2026. In New York, where the artist is based, she contributed $2.25 million to the Whitney Museum\u2019s new \u201cFree 25 and Under\u201d program, ensuring greater accessibility for the next generation of art enthusiasts.<\/p>\n
Potentially the flashiest landmark of Mehretu\u2019s year is her design for the 20th BMW Art Car. Unveiled in May at the Centre Pompidou, her design for the BMW M Hybrid V8 represents her explosive aesthetic, drawing directly from her painting Everywhen<\/em> (2021\u201323), which is currently on view in her Palazzo Grassi retrospective.<\/p>\n\u2014Maxwell Rabb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1972, Colorado Springs. Lives and works in Hudson, New York.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Jeffrey Gibson by Inez & Vinoodh. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jeffrey Gibson, SPIRIT AND MATTER,<\/i> 2023. Courtesy of Jeffrey Gibson Studio and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
The first Native American artist to represent the U.S. in a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale, Jeffrey Gibson made sure his solo pavilion had a critical edge. His installation, an explosion of color and geometric forms, challenged restrictive colonial narratives and celebrated Indigenous and queer identities. The show was named by Artsy as one of the 10 best pavilions at the 2024 biennale, featuring sculptures adorned with bright tassels and colorful, text-laden paintings. <\/p>\n
The year began auspiciously for Gibson as he opened \u201cThey Teach Love\u201d at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Oregon. This major exhibition, showcasing 15 years of his work, ran from just before the new year through March 2024. By October, mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth had announced global representation of the artist in collaboration with Sikkema Jenkins & Co. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Jeffrey Gibson, installation view, from left to right, of IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN<\/i>, 2024; The Enforcer<\/i>, 2024; and WE WANT TO BE FREE<\/i>, 2024, in the U.S. pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia, 2024. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
If representing the U.S. at the Venice Biennale wasn\u2019t enough, Gibson secured one of the most prestigious commissions of his career: The Met\u2019s Fifth Avenue fa\u00e7ade. His contribution, set to feature four monumental \u201cancestral spirit figures,\u201d will be on view from September 2025 to May 2026. Additionally, this fall, Gibson debuted a series of public installations during Climate Week New York. These large-scale projections were shown at Union Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Columbus Circle, among other locations. <\/p>\n
\u2014Maxwell Rabb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1931, Naples, Italy. Lives and works in Rome.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Isabella Ducrot in Rome, 2021. \u00a9 Albrecht Fuchs. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Petzel, New York<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Isabella Ducrot, Tendernesses on grill IX<\/i>, 2023. Photo by Daniel Greer. Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Isabella Ducrot\u2019s debut solo show with Petzel Gallery in New York this past January opened with a quote from the artist: \u201cYou can make a drawing of two people in love, but the tenderness doesn\u2019t always come out. I\u2019m trying to make tenderness come out, tenderness and the possibility of touch.\u201d This feeling radiates through Ducrot\u2019s luminous depictions of flowers, lovers, and landscapes. It also describes the way she transforms rare, centuries-old papers and fabrics sourced from across the globe in her collages and works on paper\u2014and the way she has gently enchanted the art world.<\/p>\n
Hardly a month passed this year without a major moment for the Rome-based artist, whose rise to renown primarily took place after she turned 90. Ducrot\u2019s Petzel show coincided with Big Aura<\/em> (2024), her stunning installation that enveloped Dior\u2019s spring\/summer runway show at the Mus\u00e9e Rodin in Paris. In April, her solo show at Le Consortium in Dijon, France, marked her first major international museum exhibition. By June, her second solo show with Sadie Coles HQ opened in London, followed in August by another exhibition at the Museo delle Civilt\u00e0 in Rome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Isabella Ducrot, installation view of \u201cNo Words\u201d at Petzel, 2024. Photo by Daniel Greer. Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In October and November, Ducrot\u2019s work was presented in solo booths at Frieze Masters and ADAA\u2019s The Art Show\u2014she is represented by Petzel, Sadie Coles, Galerie Gisela Capitain, and Standard (Oslo)\u2014cementing her status as a favorite among collectors. Yet it may well have been a widely admired New Yorker<\/em> profile by Rebecca Mead that really catapulted Ducrot into the public consciousness this year. Ultimately, her work transcends trends, offering a timelessness that is delightfully seductive.<\/p>\n\u2014Casey Lesser<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1960, Padua, Italy. Lives and works in New York and Milan.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Maurizio Cattelan. Courtesy of Maurizio Cattelan Archive and Perrotin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian<\/i>, 2019. Courtesy of Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Gunshot-riddled gold panels, the return of the banana, and a major museum show\u2014this was a vintage year for Maurizio Cattelan. Often dismissed as the art world\u2019s perennial prankster, Cattelan this year reaffirmed not only his unique ability to generate fiery mainstream debate, but also his status as arguably one of the most important artists working today. <\/p>\n
At the turn of the year, a solo presentation of the artist opened at Stockholm\u2019s Moderna Museet featuring some of the artist\u2019s most iconic works. In April, he created a mural in the Vatican\u2019s standout national pavilion during the Venice Biennale. Then in May, his solo show \u201cSunday\u201d at Gagosian in New York\u2019s Chelsea\u2014his debut with the mega-gallery\u2014held an uncompromising and controversial mirror to contemporary American society. Featuring works such as a 17-foot-tall wall of gold-plated panels riddled with gunshots, and a sculpture of a figure urinating on the ground, it was the artist in trademark form: brazen, confrontational, and laced with a streak of dark humor. <\/p>\n
And then there was the return of the banana. Initially conceived in 2019, where it caused a sensation at Perrotin\u2019s Art Basel Miami Beach booth, one of three editions of Comedian<\/em> (2019)\u2014a literal banana, duct-taped to a wall\u2014was put up for auction in November at Sotheby\u2019s. Estimated at $1 million\u2013$1.5 million, it eventually sold for $6.2 million (with fees) to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who paid in crypto. The work also inspired a meme coin of its own, and a few weeks after the sale, Sun ate the banana. The turn of events could have been written by Cattelan himself. <\/p>\n\u2014Arun Kakar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1983, Caracas. Lives and works in London.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Alvaro Barrington by Adama Jalloh. Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ever since completing his MFA at the Slade School of Art in 2017, Alvaro Barrington has gone from strength to strength. BLUM, Thaddaeus Ropac, and MASSIMODECARLO are just a few solo show venues for the Venezuelan-born artist, whose paintings often incorporate burlap, postcards, and clothing.<\/p>\n
This year, however, Barrington\u2019s biggest moment was not a top-tier gallery show (though he had some of those, at Mendes Wood DM and Thaddaeus Ropac, for instance). Instead, it was a monumental commission at Tate Britain. His installation, titled Grace<\/em>, is a three-part project that uses sound, painting, and sculpture to celebrate the influence of women in Black culture. It also serves as a personal tribute, honoring women from his own life: his grandmother, mother, and a close friend, Samantha. At the heart of the installation is a 4-meter-tall aluminum sculpture of a dancing woman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Alvaro Barrington, installation view of Grace<\/i>, 2024, in \u201cTate Britain Commission: Alvaro Barrington: GRACE\u201d at Tate Britain, 2024. Photo by Seraphina Neville. \u00a9 Tate. Courtesy of Tate. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
All the while, the London artist\u2019s presence has been felt worldwide, from inclusion in group shows at El Espacio 23 in Miami and James Fuentes in New York to his colorful installations at the Glastonbury Festival in England. Perhaps most notably, in the Parcours sector of Art Basel in June, Barrington unveiled Come Home <\/em>(2024), an architectural installation inside the city\u2019s Tropical Zone supermarket\u2014a space serving the local Afro and Latin American communities. This structure, built from traditional Caribbean materials like burlap and timber, featured new abstract paintings from his \u201cHibiscus\u201d series.<\/p>\n\u2014Maxwell Rabb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1936, New York. Lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia, Canada.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Joan Jonas by Toby Coulson. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Portrait of Joan Jonas posing for an unrealized poster for a performance of Organic Honey\u2019s Visual Telepathy<\/i> at LoGiudice Gallery, New York, 1972. \u00a9 Joan Jonas\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Richard Serra. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Video and performance art owe much to New York artist Joan Jonas. During the 1960s and \u201970s, Jonas was at the forefront of establishing video performance as a medium. However, as she modestly insisted in a recent Vogue<\/em> interview, she never considered herself a \u201cpioneer.\u201d Mirrors, the wind, and her alter ego, named \u201cOrganic Honey,\u201d are the subjects in her boundary-pushing videos. And this year, these significant works were featured in a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled \u201cGood Night Good Morning.\u201d<\/p>\nIt was unmistakably the season of Jonas in New York. Coinciding with the MoMA retrospective, the Drawing Center mounted \u201cJoan Jonas: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral,\u201d presenting 300 drawings from the artist\u2019s collection of some 2,000 works spanning her 60-year career. Elsewhere, Jonas\u2019s work appeared on clothing in Rachel Comey\u2019s spring 2024 collection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Joan Jonas, installation view of \u201cGood Night Good Morning\u201d at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2024. Photo by Jonathan Dorado. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Just last month, Jonas was awarded the 2024 Nam June Paik Prize by the Nam June Paik Art Center in Korea. Frances Morris, former director of Tate Modern and chair of the international jury, commented on the decision: \u201cJonas not only played a key role in shaping early video and performance art but continues to explore urgent new terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Maxwell Rabb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1935, Wonsan, North Korea. Lives and works in Buenos Aires and Yanggu, South Korea.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Kim Yun Shin in Venice, 2024. Photo by Lucy Emms, ArtDrunk. Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London; and Kukje Gallery, Seoul and Busan. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Kim Yun Shin emerged dramatically on the global art scene this year at the age of 88, after spending more than six decades crafting kaleidoscopic paintings and chainsaw-carved wooden sculptures largely outside the limelight. This noteworthy year for Kim kicked off after gaining dual representation at Lehmann Maupin and Kukje Gallery, with solo exhibitions in New York and Seoul, respectively. <\/p>\n
Kim\u2019s work, now known for exploring themes like natural harmony, stood out at the 60th Venice Biennale\u2019s main exhibition. The display featured eight sculptures, four carved from wood between 1979 and 1986 and four sculpted from stone between 1991 and 2001. These pieces are part of her long-standing series \u201cAdd Two Add One, Divide Two Divide One,\u201d inspired by the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Kim Yun Shin, installation view in \u201cForeigners Everywhere\u201d at the Venice Biennale, 2024. Photo by Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London; and Kukje Gallery, Seoul and Busan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lehmann Maupin debuted Kim\u2019s work at Frieze L.A. in February. Since then, the artist has become a mainstay at art fairs around the world, featured in major booths at KIAF, Frieze Seoul, and Art Basel Miami Beach, among others. <\/p>\n
\u2014Maxwell Rabb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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B. 1969, London. Lives and works in Amsterdam.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Portrait of Steve McQueen by James Stopforth. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With one foot in film and the other in art, Steve McQueen is a household name across creative industries. From headline-grabbing exhibitions to critically acclaimed movies, his rising clout is hard to miss\u2014evident in his climb to fourth place on this year\u2019s ArtReview<\/em> Power 100 list, up from eighth in 2023.<\/p>\nMcQueen\u2019s concurrent exhibitions at Dia Beacon and Dia Chelsea generated quite a buzz this May. At the Beacon show, on view through May 2025, McQueen presented a newly commissioned, site-specific work, Bass<\/em> (2024), where the ceiling is adorned with 60 LED lightboxes. Meanwhile, in Chelsea, he is showing three film-based works: