left to right, top to bottom: Wolfgang Tillmans; Theaster Gates; Hans Ulrich Obrist; Peter Doig; Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Marc Payot; David Zwirner; Liza Essers; Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers; Marc Glimcher; and Emmanuel Perrotin
To help navigate the somewhat daunting number of luminaries featured in the ArtReview Power 100, we’re highlighting ten artists, curators, and gallerists from the 2025 edition of the leading contemporary art magazine’s “annual portrait of power in the artworld”.
Wolfgang Tillmans was recently invited to produce the last exhibition for the closing for refurbishment of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, putting together a widely-praised takeover of 6,000 m2 of the iconic building. He is currently exhibiting new works at all three of his long-term gallerist Maureen Paley’s spaces in London - including the first exhibition at the new 4 Herald Street space which formerly housed his own London studio - with a tour-de-force of new photographic works, new photocopy works, and two large video works.
Meanwhile, Theaster Gates is exhibiting at Gray Gallery in Chicago. Titled “OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY”, the exhibition fills the space with new tar paintings, sculpture, and installation, producing an allegory of the city in decay as well as the potential within its ruins, as the gallery says “a profound reflection on Gate’s life as a craftsman, urban planner, and pedagogue”.
Ever-busy Hans Ulrich Obrist (who has been a regular entry in the Power list since its inception over twenty years ago) has two blockbuster exhibitions at the Serpentine Galleries in London, the much admired Peter Doig’s (qv) House of Music and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s THE DELUSION.
Speaking of whom, Peter Doig also makes the Power 100 and you have until February 2026 to see what everyone’s talking about at his Serpentine Galleries exhibition.
Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth, and Marc Payot of the mega-gallery that is Hauser & Wirth have lots to offer already with dozens of gallery spaces across the globe - alongside showing artists both new and firmly established, we’re looking forward to their new flagship London gallery, re-purposing what amounts to a whole block in the city’s Mayfair district.
Another well established feature of the list - and mega-gallery owner - is David Zwirner, whose current London exhibition Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum is an unflinching and five-star compendium of works by the late photographer.
The gallerists continue with Liza Essers, whose Goodman Gallery was initially established in South Africa in 1966 and represents artists whose work confronts entrenched power structures and inspires social change, with a focus on women especially those from the African Diaspora.
Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers have the substantial group exhibition “Seriously.” at the London outpost of their gallery - curated by Nana Bahlmann and featuring over a hundred conceptual photographs, print media, and films ranging from the 1960s to the present, the exhibition celebrates the ability to expose the absurdities of the world and its representations.
The Pace empire run by Marc Glimcher is celebrating its 65 anniversary in 2025, staging a series of exhibitions around the globe with work by those artists who have been crucial to its program through the decades - a collection of (now) household names including Jean Dubuffet, Sam Gilliam, Robert Indiana, Robert Irwin, Robert Mangold, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Joel Shapiro, and James Turrell.
Emmanuel Perrotin has his eponymous empire of galleries - with spaces in ten cities around the world - and in a fillip for the UK one of these is now London, where the gallery inaugurated its space in Mayfair’s Claridge’s Hotel with an exhibition of works by JR.
All the links to all the people:
Wolfgang Tillmans
Theaster Gates
Serpentine Galleries
Peter Doig
Hauser & Wirth
David Zwirner
Goodman Gallery
Sprüth Magers
Pace
Perrotin
You can read the complete Power 100 list here.
all images courtesy the gallery - and Olly Shinder, Lyndon French courtesy Theaster Gates Studio, Frank Bauer, Michael Werner Gallery, David Needleman/AUGUST, Jason Schmidt, Anthea Pokroy courtesy Goodman Gallery, Florian Thoss courtesy Sprüth Magers, Suzie Howell, Tanguy Beurdeley courtesy Perrotin
