The British contemporary art magazine ArtReview has announced its ‘Power 100’ list for 2025, with artists Ayoung Kim and Christine Sun Kim newly entering the ranking at No. 77 and No. 34, respectively.
 
First launched in 2002, ArtReview’s annual ‘Power 100,’ published every December, presents a roster of the one hundred most influential figures in contemporary art. The list is compiled through a rigorous evaluation of candidates’ recent activities and impact.
 
The selected figures span a broad spectrum of roles, including artists and artist collectives, collectors, curators, fair directors, gallerists, museum directors, thinkers, and social activists, reflecting the diverse forces shaping the art world today.

Regarding Ayoung Kim, ArtReview noted, “Kim’s worlds aren’t one-dimensional dystopias, however: the protagonists wrestle with, but also thrive in, a reality that melds the physical with the algorithmic. It has won her a following as one of the most nuanced operators of a new generation of artists tackling a sci-fi future that is already here.
 
The artist was garlanded with solo shows this year at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; MoMA PS1, New York; and M+, Hong Kong (the latter travelling to Powerhouse Museum, Sydney); as well as appearances in Thailand Biennale Phuket and New York’s Performa Biennial.”

Christine Sun Kim, who ranked 34th, is a Korean-American artist based in Berlin. Kim explores how sound functions as a tool for social interaction and how systems of translation, authority, and perception are constructed within the act of communication itself.
 
The ArtReivew highlighted Christine Sun Kim, commenting, “Now her practice has expanded to include billboards and murals commissioned in the US, the UK, Canada, South Korea and Germany, considering the annotation and implications of sound phenomena and language. In 2025 Kim opened a career-to-date survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; a show with her longtime collaborator Thomas Mader, at the Wellcome Collection in London; as well as the solo at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Kim also won the Henkaku Center at Chiba Institute of Technology’s inaugural Radical Transformation Award.”

In addition, this year’s list once again includes artist Haegue Yang (No. 38); Doryun Chong (No. 30), Chief Curator of M+ in Hong Kong; and Hyun-Sook Lee (No. 98), Founder and chairperson of Kukje Gallery, all of whom also appeared in last year’s ranking. Hyun-Sook Lee has marked her eleventh consecutive nomination, making her the only Korean figure to have achieved this distinction.
 
Meanwhile, this year’s list includes Ibrahim Mahama, a totemic artist and institution maker, at the top of the list, while Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of Qatar Museums, came second. The full 2025 Power 100 list is available on ArtReview's website (https://artreview.com/power-100/).

References

• ArtReivew, 2025 Power 100
• 갤러리현대 보도자료 (Gallery Hyundai Press Release)
• 국제갤러리 보도자료 (Kukje Gallery Press Release)