Phaidon's New Art Book ‘PRIME’ Names Over 100 Future Art Superstars

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Art publisher Phaidon has announced a new book cataloging the most exciting young artists from around the globe. Prime: Art’s Next Generation will feature 107 artists born between 1980 and 1995 when it’s released on 7 April.

Artists featured in the book include: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Farah Al Qasimi, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Firelei Báez, Meriem Bennani, Amoako Boafo, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Jordan Casteel, Jesse Darling, Jadé Fadojutimi, Louis Fratino, Lauren Halsey, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Joy Labinjo, Lina Lapelyte, Carolyn Lazard, Ad Minoliti, Tyler Mitchell, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Ima-Abasi Okon, Thao Nguyen Phan, Christina Quarles, Tschabalala Self, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shen Xin, Avery Singer, Martine Syms, Salman Toor, and Zadie Xa.

The artists were selected from a long list of almost 700 by an international jury comprising curators, writers, and advisors born during the same period.

They work at some of the world’s top art institutions including the Barbican, the Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum of American Art, auction house Phillips, Beijing’s X Museum of Art, and The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.

PRIME is Phaidon’s first cross-media survey of contemporary artists in more than a decade. It builds on the Cream series, published from 1998 to 2010, which asked ten curators to each choose ten artists who exemplified what was happening in contemporary art at the time.

In 1998, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Okwui Enwezor chose to showcase artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Sarah Sze, and Kara Walker.

In PRIME‘s introduction, Phaidon editors Simon Hunegs and Rebecca Morrill argue that millennial artists share a cultural sensibility as a result of coming of age in the nascent years of social media.

The book, they write, ‘is an introduction to the artists who will continue to grace the biennials, triennials, and other major exhibitions of the coming years. It presents the art world as it exists today, guided by those who are leading its future: it is, in other words, a primer.’ —[O]

Main image: Samara Scott, The Doldrums (2020), installation view at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, France.