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Abbas Akhavan
b. 1977, IranA multidisciplinary artist whose subtle, often ephemeral installations and sculptures reflect on the geopolitical forces that define and delimit spaces.
Adel Abdessemed
b. 1971, AlgeriaA conceptual artist known for his provocative and often confrontational work across sculpture, video, and photography.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
b. 1985, JordanA "private ear" and contemporary artist whose audio-visual investigations explore the political dimensions of sound and listening.
Ai Weiwei
b. 1957, ChinaA dissident artist, architect, and activist whose monumental practice confronts authoritarianism and champions human rights and freedom of speech.
John Akomfrah
b. 1957, GhanaA totemic figure in British art and a pioneering filmmaker whose multi-screen video installations create rich, symphonic meditations.
Francis Alÿs
b. 1959, BelgiumA conceptual artist whose practice, spanning video, performance, painting, and drawing, consists of poetic and often absurd-seeming "actions".
El Anatsui
b. 1944, GhanaA globally celebrated sculptor who transforms discarded materials, most famously aluminum bottle caps and wrappers, into vast, shimmering tapestries.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
b. 1983, NigeriaA painter who creates large-scale, layered works on paper that vibrantly depict scenes of domestic intimacy.
Michael Armitage
b. 1984, KenyaA painter who creates lush, dreamlike, and often unsettling narrative paintings that explore the social and political landscapes of East Africa.
Korakrit Arunanondchai
b. 1986, ThailandA multidisciplinary artist whose sprawling video installations, performances, and "denim paintings" create a vibrant, chaotic, and deeply personal cosmology.
Kader Attia
b. 1970, FranceA French-Algerian artist whose research-driven practice explores the concept of "repair" as a cultural and psychological process.
Tarek Atoui
b. 1980, LebanonAn artist and composer who creates complex, collaborative sound installations and performances that explore how sound is perceived, felt, and socialized.
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Firelei Báez
b. 1981, Dominican RepublicA painter and installation artist whose vibrant, intricate works on paper and canvas dismantle and reassemble historical narratives.
Sammy Baloji
b. 1978, DRCA visual artist and photographer who conducts a powerful archaeological investigation into the cultural, industrial, and architectural memory of the DRC.
Yto Barrada
b. 1971, FranceA multidisciplinary artist whose work in photography, film, sculpture, and installation explores the social and political realities of her native Morocco.
Kevin Beasley
b. 1985, USAA multidisciplinary artist whose work in sculpture and sound installation transforms found materials into powerful objects.
Rebecca Belmore
b. 1960, CanadaA multidisciplinary artist of Anishinaabe heritage whose powerful and often confrontational work addresses the violent histories of colonialism in Canada.
Dineo Seshee Bopape
b. 1981, South AfricaAn artist whose immersive installations combine video, sound, sculpture, and organic materials to create dense, polyvocal environments.
Mohamed Bourouissa
b. 1978, AlgeriaA multidisciplinary artist whose work in photography, video, and sculpture explores the social and economic realities of marginalized communities.
Sonia Boyce
b. 1962, UKA key figure in the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s whose interdisciplinary practice has evolved to a socially engaged practice.
Mark Bradford
b. 1961, USAA painter and installation artist known for his monumental, abstract canvases that function as material maps of urban life.
Tania Bruguera
b. 1968, CubaA Cuban installation and performance artist and activist whose work focuses on issues of power, control, and political agency.
Dora Budor
b. 1984, CroatiaAn artist whose sculptures and installations reanimate cinematic histories and architectural environments.
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Vajiko Chachkhiani
b. 1985, GeorgiaAn artist whose films and sculptural installations create poetic and often melancholic allegories about memory, trauma, and the human condition.
Abraham Cruzvillegas
b. 1968, MexicoA Mexican artist known for his "autoconstrucción" approach, creating sculptures and installations from found materials that explore themes of economic precarity and improvisation.
Ian Cheng
b. 1984, USAA pioneering artist who uses video game engines and artificial intelligence to create "live simulations"—virtual ecosystems populated by AI-driven characters.
Tiffany Chung
b. 1969, VietnamA multidisciplinary artist whose research-based practice focuses on cartography, using meticulously crafted maps, drawings, and installations.
Tacita Dean
b. 1965, UKA British visual artist who works primarily in film, drawing, and photography, exploring themes of time, memory, and obsolescence, particularly through her advocacy for analog film.
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Alex Da Corte
b. 1980, USAA video and installation artist whose work creates hyper-saturated, surreal worlds that remix the visual language of pop culture, advertising, and art history.
Cian Dayrit
b. 1989, PhilippinesA multidisciplinary artist whose work uses counter-cartography, sculpture, and installation to investigate and critique colonial legacies.
Jeremy Deller
b. 1966, UKA conceptual artist, filmmaker, and cultural historian whose work orchestrates social events and documents vernacular culture.
Stan Douglas
b. 1960, CanadaA Canadian artist who works in photography, film, and installation, exploring alternative histories and the construction of narrative through rigorous recreations of historical moments.
Marlene Dumas
b. 1953, South AfricaA South African painter based in the Netherlands, known for her intense, psychologically charged portraits that explore themes of sexuality, violence, and death.
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Haris Epaminonda
b. 1980, CyprusAn artist who creates meticulously composed installations of found images, objects, and sculptures, constructing enigmatic, non-linear narratives.
Latifa Echakhch
b. 1974, MoroccoA conceptual artist whose installations and sculptures use simple materials and powerful gestures to create poetic and politically resonant works.
Melvin Edwards
b. 1937, USAA pioneering African-American sculptor known for his abstract works in welded steel, particularly his ongoing series Lynch Fragments.
Nicole Eisenman
b. 1965, FranceA painter and sculptor whose work combines art historical references, cartoonish figuration, and sharp social commentary.
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Forensic Architecture
f. 2010, UKA multidisciplinary research agency that uses architectural and media technologies to investigate human rights violations and state violence.
Katharina Fritsch
b. 1956, GermanyA German sculptor known for her uncanny, meticulously crafted sculptures of everyday objects and figures.
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Charles Gaines
b. 1944, USAA pivotal figure in the development of Conceptual art who creates rigorous, system-based works in drawing, photography, and sculpture.
Theaster Gates
b. 1973, USAA social practice installation artist whose work encompasses sculpture, performance, and urban planning, transforming abandoned buildings.
Isa Genzken
b. 1948, GermanyA highly influential and relentlessly inventive artist whose work in sculpture, installation, film, and photography has captured contemporary life.
Sam Gilliam
1933-2022, USAA pioneering African-American abstract painter associated with the Washington Color School, best known for his revolutionary "Drape" paintings.
Nan Goldin
b. 1953, USAA legendary photographer whose raw, intimate, and diary-like photographs have chronicled her own life and the lives of her chosen family.
Shilpa Gupta
b. 1976, IndiaA conceptual artist whose work in sculpture, installation, sound, and text explores the fraught nature of borders, censorship, and the technologies of surveillance.
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Hans Haacke
b. 1936, GermanyA pioneering German-American artist and a central figure in the development of Conceptual and institutional critique.
Petrit Halilaj
b. 1986, KosovoAn artist whose installations and sculptures explore themes of memory, freedom, and identity, often drawing on his personal experiences of the Kosovo War.
Mona Hatoum
b. 1952, LebanonA Palestinian-British artist whose work in sculpture, installation, and video uses the language of minimalism and surrealism to explore displacement and exile.
Sheila Hicks
b. 1934, USAA pioneering American artist who has, for over six decades, pushed the boundaries of fiber and textile art.
Hiwa K
b. 1975, IraqA Kurdish-Iraqi artist whose work in video, performance, and installation draws on his personal history as a refugee and his experiences with informal economies.
Carsten Höller
b. 1961, BelgiumAn artist with a PhD in agricultural science whose work takes the form of large-scale, interactive installations and "social experiments".
Marguerite Humeau
b. 1986, FranceAn artist and researcher whose sculptures and sound installations resurrect extinct life forms and speculate on future evolutions.
David Hammons
b. 1943, USAAn American artist whose conceptual works address African-American experiences through sculpture, installation, and performance, often using found objects with charged cultural significance.
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Anne Imhof
b. 1978, GermanyAn artist and choreographer whose durational performances and installations create stark, unsettling portraits of contemporary alienation.
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Alfredo Jaar
b. 1956, ChileA Chilean-born artist, architect, and filmmaker whose conceptually rigorous installations explore the politics of representation.
Arthur Jafa
b. 1960, USAA filmmaker and artist who creates searing, virtuosic video collages that articulate the complex spectrum of Black experience.
Joan Jonas
b. 1936, USAA foundational figure in performance and video art who has created complex, multi-layered works exploring mythology, ritual, and female identity.
Isaac Julien
b. 1960, UKA British filmmaker and installation artist whose visually sumptuous, multi-screen film installations explore race, sexuality, and cultural identity.
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William Kentridge
b. 1955, South AfricaA South African artist whose animated films, drawings, and theatrical productions confront the legacy of apartheid and colonialism.
Barbara Kruger
b. 1945, USAAn American conceptual artist whose bold typographic works combine image and text to critique consumerism, desire, and power.
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Glenn Ligon
b. 1960, USAAn American conceptual artist who explores race, language, desire, and identity in his text-based paintings, neon works, and installations.
Teresa Margolles
b. 1963, MexicoA Mexican artist whose powerful installations address violence, particularly the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez and drug-related violence.
Julie Mehretu
b. 1970, EthiopiaAn Ethiopian-born abstract painter who creates complex, layered compositions that map social and political histories of urban environments.
Lina Lapelytė
b. 1984, LithuaniaA Lithuanian artist and composer whose performance-based work blends music, poetry, and visual elements to explore labor, gender, and aging, notably as part of the opera "Sun & Sea" which won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Jumana Manna
b. 1987, USA/PalestineA Palestinian-American artist and filmmaker whose work explores archeology, agriculture, and cultural preservation in relation to colonial histories, particularly in the Middle East.
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Zanele Muholi
b. 1972, South AfricaA South African visual activist and photographer who documents and celebrates the lives of Black LGBTQI+ communities in South Africa.
Oscar Murillo
b. 1986, ColombiaA Colombian artist whose paintings, installations, and performances explore themes of migration, labor, and cultural exchange.
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Ernesto Neto
b. 1964, BrazilA Brazilian artist known for his large-scale, immersive installations that engage all the senses and often incorporate elements of Amerindian spirituality.
Trevor Paglen
b. 1974, USAAn American artist whose research-based practice investigates covert military and intelligence operations through photography, sculpture, and installation.
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Otobong Nkanga
b. 1974, NigeriaA Nigerian artist whose multidisciplinary practice examines the social and topographical changes caused by resource extraction.
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Adrian Piper
b. 1948, USAAn American conceptual artist and philosopher whose work confronts racial stereotypes and explores issues of gender, class, and xenophobia.
Walid Raad
b. 1967, LebanonA Lebanese artist whose conceptual work examines the recent history of Lebanon, particularly the civil war, through photography, video, and performance.
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Michael Rakowitz
b. 1973, USAAn American artist of Iraqi-Jewish descent whose installations, sculptures, and participatory projects address the intersection of history, politics, and culture.
Carol Rama
1918-2015, ItalyAn Italian artist whose radical paintings and assemblages explored female sexuality, mental illness, and the body in ways that defied social conventions.
Pipilotti Rist
b. 1962, SwitzerlandA Swiss visual artist whose colorful, immersive video installations create dreamlike, sensual environments that explore gender, the body, and technology.
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Anri Sala
b. 1974, AlbaniaAn Albanian artist whose video installations and sound works explore the relationship between music, architecture, and political history.
Tino Sehgal
b. 1976, UKA British-German artist who creates "constructed situations" performed by interpreters, challenging the traditional boundaries between visual art and performance.
Cindy Sherman
b. 1954, USAAn American photographer and filmmaker whose self-portraits explore identity, gender stereotypes, and the representation of women in media.
Lorna Simpson
b. 1960, USAAn American artist whose conceptual photography, collage, and installation work explores race, gender, and identity through subtle juxtapositions of image and text.
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Hito Steyerl
b. 1966, GermanyA profoundly influential artist, filmmaker, and theorist whose video essays and installations offer a guide to the paradoxes of life in the digital age.
Wolfgang Tillmans
b. 1968, GermanyA German photographer whose diverse practice encompasses intimate portraiture, still life, landscape, and abstract photography, as well as installation and video.
Rirkrit Tiravanija
b. 1961, ArgentinaA Thai artist known for his relational aesthetics approach and interactive installations that often involve serving food to gallery visitors.
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Adrián Villar Rojas
b. 1980, ArgentinaAn Argentine artist whose monumental, site-specific installations of clay and organic materials explore themes of time, entropy, and extinction.
Danh Võ
b. 1975, VietnamA Vietnamese-Danish artist whose conceptual installations incorporate found objects and documents to explore themes of colonialism, migration, and identity.
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Kara Walker
b. 1969, USAAn American artist known for her silhouette cut-outs, films, and large-scale installations that confront the brutal history of American slavery and racism.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
b. 1970, ThailandA Thai filmmaker and artist whose dreamy, non-linear films and installations blur the boundaries between fact and fiction, the natural and supernatural.
Haegue Yang
b. 1971, South KoreaA South Korean artist whose sculptures and installations, often made with mundane materials like venetian blinds and light bulbs, explore histories of migration and displacement.
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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
b. 1977, UKA British painter known for her enigmatic portraits of fictional Black subjects that draw on the traditions of European portraiture while challenging its conventions.
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Anicka Yi
b. 1971, South KoreaA South Korean artist whose installations incorporate unusual materials like bacteria, algae, and fragrances to explore the intersection of art, science, and sensory experience.