Art Review Vol.76 No.1

For the February issue, ArtReview asked its editors and a range of international artists to highlight their Future Greats, a broad and subjective category for what is essentially a group of less-established artists they think merit particular attention. But tapping into the biennial and art-market stars of tomorrow isn’t really the point of Future Greats. It’s more about highlighting those who are making art that they find exciting and alluring, and who they think might be offering new definitions of what art can be. These artists, whether working in photography, film, puppetry, performance or sculpture, are capturing a complicated present as they seek ways through to future possibilities.

ArtReview launched its first Future Greats issue in 2007; many of the artists featured (Anne Imhof, Chris Evans, Thomas Zipp, Paulina Olowska, to mention just a few) are still readily recognisable names. In contemporary art, there’s often the impression that novelty, velocity and visibility are the markers of success. A cycle of new faces, changing endlessly, some of them destined to become art ‘stars’. (Who would have thought, during the early 2000s, that during the 2020s artists could become overnight ‘names’ on Instagram?)

But who are they new to, and great in what way? Sometimes it’s also about where, and how, people are paying close attention. This year’s ten up-and-coming artists have been selected by a mix of more-established artists and ArtReview’s editors. Those chosen include photographer Nabil Harb, whose black-and-white photography captures, to paraphrase  Farah Al Qasimi, pockets of desire and belonging in Florida; Mire Lee highlights Eoghan Ryan, whose interdisciplinary practice is infused with ‘attachment and solidarity with the marginalised, the unspeakable and the left-behind’; Iranian filmmaker Farzaneh Forouzesh explores Iranian women’s intergenerational approaches to womanhood, which Shirin Neshat writes leans ‘on the power of abstraction and enigma’ to build a poetic and political narrative. The other artists profiled here are Pooja Gurung & Bibhusan Basnet, Yuli Yamagata, Dana Kavelina, Thaweechok Phasom, Gabriel Rodríguez Pellecer, Derek Tumala and Hiền Hoàng.  

Also in this issue: Ross Simonini interviews Jordan Wolfson, whose controversial £3.5m Body Sculpture (2023) acquisition by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, is now on view. Simonini writes that ‘one could easily interpret his [Wolfson’s] project as sharp intellectual farce’, but in their talk, Wolfson ‘was insistent on grounding his work in direct perception and metaphysical knowing’; Adam Thirlwell is intrigued by the potential of filmic autobiography and autofiction; Clara Young’s visit to Maison Gainsbourg is touched by a daughter’s personal memories of her father; Chris Fite-Wassilak offers a city report of Accra’s flourishing arts community; and Rosanna McLaughlin inspects Camille Paglia’s controversial legacy and what McLaughlin calls Paglia’s ‘elite-level trolling’. Plus a selection of reviews from London, Dubai, New York, Singapore, Berlin, Margate, Yogyakarta and Mexico City, and of books about Saudi Arabia’s creative economy, a novel way to organise one’s diary and Takashi Homma’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.

Art Review Founded in 1949, ArtReview is one of the world’s leading international contemporary art magazines, dedicated to expanding contemporary art’s audience and reach.