Observer Lists Most Influential People in the Art Business

News Nan Goldin Tops ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2023 Sam Gaskin

Observer said its list ‘spotlights the bold innovators steering today’s art world through shifting markets, new collector dynamics, and cultural reinvention. From market disruptors to institution builders, these visionaries are redefining influence, expanding access and setting the course for art’s global future.’

The list is more focused on market influence—spending power, mostly—than ideas and aesthetics.

Among those listed are billionaires François Pinault (The Pinault Collection), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg Philanthropies), Maja Hoffman (LUMA Foundation), and Yusaku Maezawa (Contemporary Art Foundation).

The list, which strongly skews towards the U.S., also features the heads of wealthy trusts and foundations, including Katherine Fleming, who runs the $8.6 billion J. Paul Getty Trust, and Darren Walker, president of the $16 billion Ford Foundation.

Members of major institutions include MoMA board president Sarah Arison, whose father Ted Arison founded Carnival Cruise Lines, and Sophia Cohen, who is Co-Chair of Guggenheim‘s Young Collectors Council, founder of advisory and curatorial consultancy Siren, and daughter of New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.

Executives at art fairs are another well-represented group. They include Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz and the heads of three Art Basel fairs. Christine Messineo, Frieze’s Director of Americas, is also on the list, but there’s no spot for Patrick Lee, who has quickly established Frieze Seoul as the most exciting fair in the region.

Art Assembly’s Magnus Renfrew, who oversees fairs in Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo, is a notable addition from Asia, while the team behind ART021, which this year expanded to Hong Kong after establishing three fairs in mainland China, is a conspicuous absence.

Others featured on Observer’s list include lawyers Leila A. Amineddoleh and Megan E. Noh, art asset managers Evan Beard and Philip Hoffman, and digital art advocate Tina Rivers Ryan, who took over as editor-in-chief at Artforum after the controversial ousting of David Velasco.

Among the list’s more surprising inclusions are Gallery Climate Coalition, Toronto Biennial co-curator Miguel A. López, and Zoe Lukov, who has brought fresh appeal and humour to exhibition making. Observer‘s full Business of Art Power List can be read here. —[O]

_{Editor’s Note: a factual correction was made on 20 November, amending an earlier confusion with British newspaper The Observer.}