Our Powerless 20 List Is Here
Hyperallergic’s annual antidote to the lists of wealthy collectors, royals, and so-called tastemakers just dropped.
Hyperallergic’s annual antidote to the lists of wealthy collectors, royals, and so-called tastemakers just dropped.
The end-of-year list you've been waiting for is here: The 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World, 2025 edition.
The list celebrates the strength and resilience of the people and communities on the margins of power structures. It's our annual antidote to the foolish lists of wealthy collectors, royals, and so-called tastemakers that pervade the market-driven art media. And as per tradition, we've peppered some entries with humor and satire, two important instruments of resistance.
Dating back to the earliest days of this publication, the Powerless 20 is one of many things that make Hyperallergic a unique voice in the field. Please support our work by becoming a paid member. Any contribution would make a big difference. Happy Holidays!
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
The 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World: 2025 Edition
Undocumented artists, the Smithsonian, the Louvre's security system, and the Philadelphia Art Museum’s brand identity are among this year's Powerless 20.
Here’s to hoping for a new year that finds power in the hands of the many, not the few.
News
The House on Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell’s Studio Re-Created by Wes Anderson (photo by Thomas Lannes; image © 2025 The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; courtesy Gagosian )
- Filmmaker Wes Anderson recreates artist Joseph Cornell’s Queens home studio at the Paris location of Gagosian Gallery. Cornell never got to visit Paris, though he deeply longed for it.
From Our Critics
Faith Ringgold, "Coming to Jones Road #2: Sunday Evening on Jones Road" (1999) (photo Jasmine Weber/Hyperallergic)
Faith Ringgold's Story Quilts Get to the Heart of Being Human
Jasmine Weber contemplates Faith Ringgold's magnificent story quilts in a new show at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, featuring never-before-seen works by the late artist.
Art Tarotscope
The Speaker of Wands card from the Mixed Signals tarot deck by M Eilo (courtesy M Eilo)
Ax Mina is back with an art tarot reading for the winter solstice. She bears good news: After a long period of feeling frozen, the new year hints at signs of thaw and forward movement.
From the Archive
“May Christmas be Merry” (19th-century Christmas card) (via Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington)
Have a Creepy Little Christmas with These Unsettling Victorian Cards
Anthropomorphic cats, murderous frogs, and insects dancing by the moonlight aren't exactly part of our Christmas card tradition today.
ICYMI
The Best Art Shows Around the World in 2025
Nan Goldin’s fearless photos, Noah Davis’s enchantments of ordinary life, Stan Douglas’s historical visions, and Yoko Ono’s musical mind were just some of our favorites.