Nan Goldin Tops ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2023
Nan Goldin (2022). Courtesy Gagosian. Photo: Thea Traff.
American artist Nan Goldin tops ArtReview‘s Power 100 this year ahead of artists Hito Steyerl (2), Rirkrit Tiravanija (3), and Simone Leigh (4).
ArtReview described Goldin as ‘the most visible and prominent model of artist as not just documenter and witness, but also spokesperson, whistleblower, activist and ethical voice.’
Goldin has long used her practice to advocate for vulnerable people. In her 1989 exhibition Witness she presented photographs of people with AIDS, for example, and she established P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) in 2017 to draw attention to the opioid crisis.
Goldin’s fight against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma were the subject of the 2022 documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022).
Recently Goldin has spoken up against Israel’s war on Gaza, reportedly cancelling a job with the New York Times’ Sunday magazine because of the newspaper’s reporting, which she said ‘shows complicity with Israel’.
She also broke ties with Artforum after they fired their Editor-in-Chief, David Velasco, for publishing an open letter calling for an end to Israel’s attacks.
Among the Power 100’s top 10, Rirkrit Tiravanjia had the most rapid rise, ascending from number 86 in last year’s list. ArtReview praised him for a big year that included an event at Haus der Kunst in Munich, set design for a production of Toshio Hosokawa’s opera Hanjo (2004), a survey at MoMA PS1, several gallery exhibitions, and co-curating the Thailand Biennale.
The highest-placed gallerist on the list is Larry Gagosian at number 12 ahead of Hauser & Wirth‘s Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth & Marc Payot at 14, David Zwirner at 19, and Pace Gallery‘s Marc Glimcher at 20.
Those to top the Power 100 in previous years include Documenta 15 curators ruangrupa (2022), NFT protocol ERC-721 (2021), the Black Lives Matter movement (2020), and MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry (2019). —[O]
Main image: Nan Goldin (2022). Courtesy Gagosian. Photo: Thea Traff.
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