Welcome to the Alt Power 100 Artlyst 2024/2025. The Alt Power 100 Artlyst celebrates the visionaries transforming the artistic landscape and culture. This year’s edition cuts through traditional hierarchies to spotlight those who wield influence in unexpected and transformative ways. These individuals disrupt, innovate and inspire—pioneers challenging the status quo and redefining what it means to shape the future of art. This list reflects the diverse and dynamic voices leading us into a new era of creative expression, from emerging artists and artist-curators to cultural agitators and tech innovators. The Alt Power 100 Artlyst is not just about those in the limelight but also about the unseen forces behind the scenes – curators, organisers and educators – who enrich and invigorate our communities. As always, Artlyst brings a fresh perspective, honouring established names and emerging talents that drive change in today’s art world. This year, we are presenting the names alphabetically to avoid the hierarchy of a top 100 type list. After all, this is our way of saying thank you for your contributions to visual art.
Paul Carter Robinson Artlyst CEO – Sara Faith Contributing editor
A
Pio Abad is a Filipino visual artist based in London who was nominated for the 2024 Turner Prize.
Larry Achiampong – a British Ghanaian artist whose work includes moving images, sculptural installation, photographic and painted collage
Sir John Akomfrah CBE RA – the Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator represented Great Britain at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.
Miren Arzalluz – Newly Appointed Director General Guggenheim Bilbao, Arzalluz, a renowned art historian and curator, will take up her post in April 2025
B
Maria Balshaw, CBE – Director of Tate Art Museums and Galleries since 2017, is the first woman to hold the position.
Banksy – the pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director who unveiled a series of animal-themed murals this year that captured the public’s attention.
Alvaro Barrington is a London-based artist who is primarily a painter and often incorporates yarn, wood, and other media into his work. His piece Grace was this year’s Tate Britain Commission.
Leonie Bell – Director V&A Dundee, Scotland’s Design Museum, responsible for ensuring that V&A Dundee continues to grow and evolve as a world-class design museum
Osei Bonsu – Curator of International Art, Tate Modern, responsible for organising exhibitions, developing the Museum’s Collection and broadening the representation of African and African diaspora artists.
Mark Bradford – the Los Angeles-based artist best known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper, won the 2024 Getty Priz.e
Rosie Broadley – Joint-Head of Curatorial & Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery and curator of Francis Bacon: Human Presence, currently at the NPG.
Khaleb Brooks, originally from Chicago, is a transgender, interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of blackness, transness, and collective memory and has been commissioned to create the UK’s Trans-Atlantic Slave monument.
C
Rob & Nick Carter – husband and wife artist duo who have collaborated for over 20 years. Known for exploration into artworks using AI and robotics.
Guy Casely-Hayford OBE – British curator, cultural historian, broadcaster, and lecturer with Ghanaian roots and is the Director of V&A East.
Maurizio Cattelan – Italian visual artist. He is known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations. His duct-taped banana sold at Sotheby’s this year for $5.2m in November 2024. He is often referred to as the Joker of Contemporary Art.
Sheryll Catto – Artistic Director and CEO of ActionSpace – a charity working with learning-disabled artists across London as a Creative Hub, Supported Studio and Artist Development Agency.
Lee Cavaliere – Artistic Director of VOLTA art fairs,
Aaron Cezar – founding Director of the Delfina Foundation, an independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, partnerships, and public programming.
Dr Helen Charman FRSA MA – Director of Learning, National Programmes and Young V&A at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
Judy Chicago – American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. Had a show at The Serpentine Galleries in 2024.
Martin Clark – Director of the Camden Arts Centre.
Jago Cooper – Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich and Professor of Art and Archaeology at UEA.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, took up his position as the Director of the British Museum in June 2024
D
Agnes Denes – Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in various media—from poetry and philosophical writings to highly detailed drawings, sculptures, and iconic land artworks. Her Living Pyramid 2024 sculpture was commissioned for the upcoming Desert X biennial.
E
Touria El Glaoui -Founding Director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Tracey Emin DBE RA – English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin was made a Dame in 2024.
Ekow Eshun is a journalist, broadcaster, curator and Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group Chair. In 2024 he curated The Time Is Always Now at the NPG which showcased the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora.
F
Alex Farquharson – Director Tate Britain. As Director of Tate Britain, he is Chair of the Turner Prize.
Gabriele Finaldi – Director of the National Gallery, London. Knighted in the New Year’s Honours List 2025
Bridget Finn – American art dealer and gallerist. In 2024 she became the Director of Art Basel Miami Beach.
Katherine Fleming – runs the art world’s wealthiest fortress, the J. Paul Getty Trust.
G
Anya Gallaccio – artist known for her site-specific installations using organic materials. In 2024 she was selected to create London’s AIDS Memorial.
Liz Gilmore – after 14 years as Director of Hastings Contemporary, Gilmore is to become CEO of The Sherborne Dorset.
Nan Goldin – American photographer who highlighted the OxyContin epidemic and isolated the Sackler family’s role as the manufacturers of this lethal drug.
Will Gompertz became the Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in January 2024.
H
Mark Hallett – English art historian specialising in the history of British art. He is the Märit Rausing Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Jane Hamlyn MBE is chair of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Director of The Frith Street Gallery.
Margaret Harrison – English feminist and artist whose work uses a variety of media and subject matter.
Jacqueline Harvey – Director of the Women in Art Fair (WIAF) at the Mall Galleries in London
Margot Heller OBE – Director of South London Gallery, was responsible for embedding the gallery in its local community while establishing its international reputation.
Nathaniel Hepburn MBE – Director and Chief Executive of Charleston.
Joe Hill – Director of Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
Karin Hindsbo – Director of Tate Modern in 2023 and is determined to make it a ground-breaking institution.
Tristram Hunt – Director of the V&A Museums
I
J
Waldemar Januszczak – English art critic, television documentary producer, and presenter.
Shanay Jhaveri – Head of Visual Arts at Barbican. In 2024 the Barbican staged The Imaginary Institution of India Art 1975-1998.
Claudette Johnson MBE RA is a British visual artist. She is known for her large-scale drawings of Black women and her involvement with the BLK Art Group, of which she was a founder member. In 2024 she had a solo show at The Courtauld and was nominated for the Turner Prize.
Sir Isaac Julian CBE RA, British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2024, he was awarded the Whitechapel Icon Award.
K
John Kasmin – Iconic British art dealer, collector and photographer, also known as “Kas. In 2024, Lyndsey Ingram held an exhibition of his photos from the 1960s and 1970s featuring an international community of artists, dealers and critics.
Jasleen Kaur – Scottish artist, and the winner of the 2024 Turner Prize. She works with mixed media, including installations, sculpture, sound art, and writing, and has a socially engaged arts practice.
Koyo Kouah – Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town since 2019 who has been appointed Curator of the 61st Venice Biennale.
Barbara Kruger, an American conceptual artist and collagist, is associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style, which consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. Had an exhibition at The Serpentine in 2024.
L
Delaine Le Bas – British artist from a Romani background. She combines visual, performative and literary practices to create an artistic oeuvre encompassing all life areas. In 2024, she was nominated for the Turner Prize.
Clare Lilley – British art curator and Director of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Professor Christoph Lindner – Royal College Of Art President and Vice-Chancellor
Hew Locke OBE RA – Guyanese/British sculptor and contemporary visual artist based in Brixton, London. In 2024 he turned his lens on the British Museum collection in a collaborative exhibition exploring histories of British imperial power.
M
Ibrahim Mahama – Artist – Part of Ghana’s thriving art scene and exhibiting internationally
Seema Manchanda – Director of The Showroom and chair of the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), a national race equality charity.
Teresa Margolles – Mexican conceptual artist, photographer, videographer, and performance artist. Currently, her sculpture for the Fourth Plinth Commission, Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) the sculpture featuring the faces of 726 trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, can be seen in Trafalgar Square.
Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA– Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter and one of his generation’s most influential artists and teachers. He is an emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. In 2024 the Royal Academy held a retrospective of his work.
Kerry James Marshall, Artist – African-American painter known for his paintings of Black figures.
Simon Martin – Director of Pallant House Gallery
Sarah McCrory – Director of Goldsmith’s CCA Gallery, set up to enhance Goldsmiths’ reputation for excellence and innovation in the arts
Mary-Anne McQuay – has been Head of the Programme at Bluecoat, Liverpool, since November 2014. She will be the Director of the 2025 Liverpool Biennial.
Julie Mehretu – Artist – Gestural painter influencing the next generation
Beth Miller – Deputy Director for Advancement and External Affairs Yale Centre For British Art
Archie Moore – Aboriginal Australian multimedia artist. His work was represented in the Australian pavilion at the 2024 Venice, for which he won the Golden Lion.
Sarah Munro MBE – Director of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
N
Sandy Nairne – CBE FSA is a British art historian and curator appointed Chair of Trustees at the Art Fund in 2024.
Lisa Nandy – British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Barbara Nessim – American feminist artist, illustrator, and educator. She is a pioneering figure in computer arts.
O
Yoko Ono – born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
P
James Payne – Art Historian, creator of the video channel Great Art Explained
Michael Petry – Artist\Author His new Book, Mirror Mirror, is a must-read.
Victoria Pomery OBE is the CEO of The Box, Plymouth.
Q
R
Barbara Rae, Colourist/Printmaker who received a Damehood in the 2025 King’s Honours’ List
Suhanya Raffel & Doryun Chong – Curator/Director and chief curator of Hong Kong’s M+ museum
Pipilotti Rist (born 21 June 1962) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art.
Gemma Rolls-Bentley – Curator and Author of Queer Art
Alex Ruger – New Director Frick Collection in NYC Former RA Creative Director
Ralph Rugoff OBE – Director of Hayward Gallery and past Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale
S
Rebecca Salter CBE PRA – Artist President of the Royal Academy of Arts
Sir Nicholas Serota – Chair of Arts Council England.
Joe Scotland MBE – Director of Studio Voltaire
Wael Shawky – Artist – of note at this year’s Venice Biennale. Appointed Artistic Director of Qatar Museums’ Creative Hub Fire Station: Artist in Residence
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA – Artist – His latest show at the Serpentine was exemplary
Victoria Siddall – Former Frieze Director, now Director of the NPG
Sir Paul Smith CH CBE RDI – fashion designer and curator
Stephen Snoddy – British Artist and Director of The New Art Gallery Walsall.
Kathleen Soriano – New Interim Director Hastings Contemporary
Anthony Spira – Director of M.K. Gallery
Tavares Strachan – For his show at Hayward Gallery in 2024, large sculpture at RA for the colonial exhibition
T
Gilane Tawadros – Director Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Dr Nicola Triscott – CEO of FACT, Liverpool, the U.K.’s leading organisation for supporting and exhibiting art, film, and new media.
U
V
Simon Wallis Director of The Hepworth Wakefield Photo: Hannah Webster
W
Clarrie Wallis – Director of Turner Contemporary.
Simon Wallis OBE – Director of Hepworth Wakefield
Dominique White – Ninth Max Mara Art Prize Winner
Zoé Whitley – Director of Chisenhale Gallery
X
Y
Z
Mariam Zulfiqar – Director of Artangel. Before joining the team in January 2022, Mariam led the National Art Programme at Forestry England