If you’re the sort of person that thinks money alone makes the art-world go around then leave this page immediately. However, if you are driven by curiosity and aesthetics and believe in the need for an alternative to Art Review’s Power 100 list which celebrates a gratuitous form of back patting pandering to the 1% of fat-cat gallerists and hedge-fund collectors, then this is for you.
One of the most refreshing parts of 2016 has been all change at the major public galleries with many of the top positions being filled by women. Also the emphasis on exhibitions shifting to less conventional spaces such as former prisons, brutalist office buildings and public car parks.
Pop-ups have still been a focus. The key art fairs like Frieze and Art Basel create a perfect opportunity to hijack the moment in order to help promote emerging art in its purest form and that is on the fringe of the mainstream art-world. By showing art in car parks and alternative spaces we can achieve a new context for art appreciation. Art should be available to all that seek it out, and capturing a new audience is the most inclusive thing we can think of to create dialogue, change, and express creativity.
Indeed, what emerges from Artlyst’s Power-Lyst is a great many figures not on the higher echelons of the world of finance, (not to say we haven’t included the odd billionaire) but mainly individuals like museum directors and curators on the edge, quietly making a difference in many ways.
The number of new and imaginative enterprises outlined by Artlyst this year will hopefully help bring art to a wider public, as well as focus on academic and critical engagement. This in itself is cause for celebration.
Top 20 2016 Alt Power 100 Lyst
- Frances Morris – New Director Tate Modern
- Maria Balshaw CBE – Director of the Whitworth, University of Manchester and Manchester City Galleries which includes Manchester Art Gallery and Gallery of Costume
- Iwona Blazwick OBE– Director of Art at the Whitechapel Gallery
- Cornelia Parker OBE, RA, sculptor who created Magna Carta (an embroidery) for the British Library. Curated Found at Foundling Museum. New York commission for the Met’s roof garden.
- Sally Tallant – Director of Liverpool Biennial
- Sir Nicholas Serota -outgoing Director of the Tate (1988-present)
- Tim Marlow -critic, broadcaster and Head of Exhibitions at Royal Academy of Arts
- Gabriele Finaldi – Director of the National Gallery, London
- David Shrigley – 2016 Fourth Plinth commission Really Good
- Yana Peel – CEO Serpentine Galleries
- Alex Farquharson – Director Tate Britain
- Sarah Munro – Director of the BALTIC
- James Lingwood/Michael Morris – Co-Directors of Artangel since 1991, responsible for building Artangel into a significant international commissioning and producing organisation.
- Nicholas Cullinan – Director of National Portrait gallery
- Victoria Pomery – Director of Turner Contemporary
- Phyllida Barlow CBE Due to represent Britain at 2017 Venice Biennale
- Jenni Lomax – Director of the Camden Arts Centre
- Carol Seigel – Freud Museum for artist integrative exhibitions such as Gavin Turk and Mark Wallinger
- Chris Le Brun – President of the Royal Academy and artist
- Tim Sayer – Art collector for donating his collection to Hepworth Wakefield
The Full 2016 Alt Power 100 Lyst In Alphabetical Order
1. Philly Adams – Chief Curator and Director at Saatchi gallery
2. Ron Arad – architect, designer, his sculpture Spyre was in the forecourt of the Royal Academy during the Summer exhibition
3. Michael Archer: Professor of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, art critic and freelance writer, regular contributor to the Guardian Culture section on contemporary art from 1960 onwards.
4. Ziba Ardalan: founder and Director/Curator of Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, a privately-funded educational charity and a not-for-profit art gallery.
5. Karen Ashton – Founder and Curator of the Art Car Boot Fair
6. Vanya Balogh – artist/ independent curator, known for his art exhibitions in unusual spaces including underground car parks
7. Maria Balshaw CBE – Director of the Whitworth, University of Manchester and Manchester City Galleries which includes Manchester Art Gallery and Gallery of Costume
8. Phyllida Barlow CBE awarded in 2016 and due to represent Britain at 2017 Venice Biennale
9. Iwona Blazwick OBE– Director of Art at the Whitechapel Gallery
10. Erica Bolton/Jane Quinn: PR gurus and organisational magicians at Bolton & Quinn Ltd.
11. Rob Bowman Director of Arnolfini, Bristol
12. Pablo Bronstein – Argentinian artist known for his faux historic architectural drawings, undertook the Tate Britain Commission 2016
13. Bonnie Camplin – artist whose work spans the disciplines of drawing, film, performance, music and writing, 2015 Turner Prize nominee who has a new exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre
14. Jimmy Cauty – artist and former member of the band KLF. His installation The Aftermath Dislocation Principle a post-riot landscape created in miniature toured the UK in 2016
15. Frank Cohen– Co-Founder Dairy Art Centre, London curated show of his collection at Fortnum and Mason
16. Sir Michael Craig-Martin – Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths London, previously a tutor at Goldsmiths where he fostered the talent of many of the YBAs. Knighted in New Year’s honours list.
17. Nicholas Cullinan – Director of National Portrait gallery co-curator of Matisse cut-outs exhibition at Tate Modern with Nicholas Serota
18. Michael Dean Turner prize nominee 2016
19. Jeremy Deller – English conceptual, video and installation artist. Winner of the Turner Prize in 2004, represented Britain at 2013 Venice Biennale whose work consistently champions the rights and interests of the people. This year he created We’re here because we’re here, a performance piece to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.
20. Edith Devaney, Contemporary Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts
21. Philip Dodd – arts broadcaster, writer and curator
22. Peter Doig – narrative painter, Turner prize nominee and darling of the art market, recent subject of the most outlandish authenticity court case
23. Emily Druiff: Director of Peckham Platform – a UK charity that champions social artworks.
24. Adrienne Edwards Curator at Large of Performa 2016
25. Olafur Eliasson – Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature. In2016 he created an installation at the Palace of Versailles
26. Zavier Ellis – Director of Charlie Smith Gallery, Curator of The Future Can Wait, organiser of Anthology Prize and Young Gods
27. Brenda Emmanus – BBC London’s Art, Culture and Entertainment correspondent
28. Okwui Enwezor Poet and first African-born director of the Venice Biennale.
29. Alex Farquharson Director Tate Britain,
30. Gabriele Finaldi – Director of the National Gallery, London
31. Ryan Gander – London-based artist, creator of the Locked Room Scenario in Shoreditch, awarded the 2010 Zurich Art prize, accompanied by an exhibition at the Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, and winner of the 2003 Prix de Rome.
32. Candida Gertler – co-Founder Outset
33. Nan Goldin American photographer
34. Brett Gorvy – the British-born Chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s
35. Kelly Grovier – American poet, literary critic, art historian and curator co-founder of European Romantic Review, author of 100 Works of Art That Will Define our Age
36. David Gryn – Director of Daata Editions & Artprojx and Curator, Film & Sound, Art Basel in Miami Beach
37. Maggi Hambling – painter and stalwart of the British Art Scene who created the innovative Wall of Water series for the National Gallery. New drawing exhibition at British Museum.
38. Anthea Hamilton Turner Prize nominee 2016
39. Justin Hammond – Curator of the The XL Catlin Art Prize for recent graduates of British art colleges
40. Damien Hirst – not for his art but for giving us Newport Street Gallery
41. Natasha Hoare – curator of Dialogues Art Projects at London Art Fair
42. David Hockney – National treasure who is still going from strength to strength, 2016 saw his 82 Portraits and 1 still life exhibition at RA
43. Gary Hume artist for founding £75,000 Goldsmith scholarship
44. Stefan Kalmar new Director of ICA
45. Alex Katz – American painter known for his oversized portraits. Summer show at the Serpentine Gallery.
46. William Kentridge artist subject of Whitechapel exhibition
47. Omar Kholeif – curator, writer and editor
48. Yayoi Kusama– Japanese artist whose work borders on outside art and is one of the most successful women artists
49. Chris Le Brun – President of the Royal Academy and artist
50. James Lingwood and Michael Morris – Co-Directors of Artangel since 1991, responsible for building Artangel into a significant international commissioning and producing organisation. Commissioned ambitious project at Reading Prison inviting artists to create works in response to Oscar Wilde’s incarceration.
51. Jenni Lomax – Director of the Camden Arts Centre
52. Edward Lucie-Smith – Art critic and senior art taste maker
53. Christine Macel – Visual Arts Sector Director of 2017 Venice Biennale
54. Tim Marlow – critic, broadcaster and Head of Exhibitions at Royal Academy
55. Helen Marten Turner Prize nominee 2016
56. Steve McQueen – CBE and Turner Prize winning video artist turned Oscar winning Filmmaker
57. Sarah Monk: Director of London Art Fair. Sarah has been Fair Director since 2013
58. Ben Moore – Founder of Art Below, a London based public art enterprise, founded in 2006 using billboard space in underground stations to display artworks in London and overseas.
59. Frances Morris – new Director Tate Modern who succeeded Chris Dercon in January 2016
60. Gregor Muir – outgoing Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London newly appointed Director of International Art at Tate
61. Sarah Munro: Director of the BALTIC
62. Peter Murray CBE Founder and Executive Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park
63. Elizabeth Neilson – Director of the Zabludowicz Collection
64. Hans Ulrich Obrist – the Serpentine Gallery’s Co-directors of Exhibitions and Programmes.
65. Maureen Paley Gallerist
66. Philippe Parreno – Tate Turbine Hall Commission
67. Cornelia Parker OBE, RA, sculptor who created Magna Carta (an embroidery) for the British Library. Curated Found at Foundling Museum. New York commission for the Met’s roof garden.
68. Yana Peel – CEO Serpentine Galleries
69. Grayson Perry – artist known for his work in ceramics, and awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, self-curated show The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum 2011, received BAFTA in 2013 for his series All in the best possible Taste and 2014 Reith Lectures for Radio 4 and creator of A House for Essex 2015. Recent documentary All Man for C4.
70. Michael Petry – multi-media artist, writer and curator. Director of MOCA London, co-founder of the Museum of Installation,
71. Victoria Pomery – Director of Turner Contemporary since 2002,
72. Josephine Pryde – Turner Prize nominee 2016
73. David Roberts – Prolific art collector in the UK, in 2008 started the ‘David Roberts Art Foundation’ to help emerging artists and young curators.
74. Martin Roth outgoing Director of the V&A for giving us the most inventive museum displays
75. Tim Sayer – art collector for donating his collection to Hepworth Wakefield
76. Sean Scully RA – one of the finest abstract painters of his generation, twice nominated for Turner prize, internationally exhibited in China, the US, Spain, Germany and the UK
77. Carol Seigel, Freud Museum for artist integrative exhibitions such as Gavin Turk and Mark Wallinger
78. Nicholas Serota – outgoing Director of the Tate (1988-present) and the driving force behind the opening of the Tate Modern and its new extention. Has participated on the board of The Architecture Foundation and chaired the Turner Prize jury. Due to take over as chair of Arts Council England
79. Conrad Shawcross – kinetic sculptor and youngest Royal Academician
80. Yinka Shonibare – British-Nigerian artist known for his ‘post-colonial’ hybrid works often relating to the history of slavery. Current installation at Turner Contemporary
81. David Shrigley Really Good Fourth Plinth commission
82. Victoria Siddall – Director of Frieze Art Fair
83. Bob and Roberta Smith – contemporary British artist operating under pseudonym, famous for painting slogan-bearing signage in support of various activist campaigns.
84. Donald Smith – CHELSEA Space Director, with the ambition to create ‘a research development centre for invited art and design professionals, providing a gallery space, library research facilities, and a platform to develop personal projects that may otherwise remain unrealised’.
85. Chris Stephens – Head of Displays and Lead Curator, Modern British Art at Tate
86. Sally Tallant – Director of Liverpool Biennial
87. Simon Tarrant – Director Winter Pride Art Awards
88. Paul Thompson – Rector of the Royal College of Art, served as Director of the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum in New York until 2009, trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Member of the Wellcome Collection Advisory Committee at the Wellcome Trust.
89. Gavin Turk – Artist who continues to be identified with YBA label but also associated with emerging talent
90. Luc Tuymans – Antwerp born painter whose unsuccessful trial for plagiarism in 2015 questioned the use of image appropriation in art
91. Fatos Ustek – Curator Fig 52 ICA the most ambitious art project
92. Ed Vaizey – former Culture Minister for his informative weekly newsletter and his contribution to preserving the UK’s cultural heritage
93. Dea Vanagan – new Director Hauser & Wirth Somerset
94. Mark Wallinger – sculptor and installation artist, double Turner Prize nominee, won the Prize in 2007 for the work State Britain. . Created Labyrinth for 150th anniversary of the London Underground in 2013. Self Reflection at Freud Museum, London.
95. Kara Walker – contemporary African-American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work
96. Simon Wallis – Director Hepworth Musuem, Wakefield
97. Ai WeiWei – Chinese political artist championing human rights exhibition at Royal Academy
98. Godfrey Worsdale Director Henry Moore Foundation
99. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Turner prize nominee and winner of Southbank award for serpentine exhibition
100. Anita and Poju Zabludowicz – founded the Zabludowicz Collection in 2007, a space for exhibitions, commissions and residencies, as well as establishing the Zabludowicz Collection ‘Curatorial Open’ and ‘Testing Ground’ programmes to promote contemporary art education. Anita was made OBE in 2016 New Year Honours List.