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We Spoke to the Biggest Influencers in the Art World This Year. Here Are Some of Our Favorite Conversations
Throughout 2023, we spoke to hundreds of rising stars and established names in the art business.
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Throughout 2023, our talented team of correspondents, editors, and writers had in-depth conversations with hundreds of the art world’s rising stars, household names, and tastemaking influencers. We gathered some of our favorite discussions with timeless takeaways.
‘It’s About Working Together in a Celebratory Way’: Robbie Fitzpatrick on Founding Art-Fair Alternatives, From Basel Social Club to Salon d’Été
By Anna Sansom
Robbie Fitzpatrick and Philippe Joppin.
“None of my artists could do anything else besides being artists. They were put on this planet to show us a different way of looking at the world.”
Photographer Ryan McGinley’s Unfiltered Debut Show ‘The Kids Are Alright’ Defined a Generation. 20 Years Later, the Artist Takes a Look Back
By William van Meter
Ryan McGinley stands in front of his work at 420 West Broadway in 2000. Courtesy of the artist.
“My hours were nine to five, but 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.”
‘Honesty Saves Time’: Why Top Collectors Come to Advisor Evan Tawil
By Sarah P. Hanson
Evan Tawil. Photo: Caitlin Mitchell, courtesy of Evan Tawil.
“The smart money is in purchases north of $1 million. New collectors who are interested in art as an investment always tell me they’d rather buy 10 pieces for $100,000 each, rather than one work for $1 million. I tell them to do the latter.”
Art Basel Investor James Murdoch on Why He’s Drawn to the ‘Traveling Circus’ Model of Art Fairs, and His Plans for Evolving the Business of Culture
By Tim Schneider
James Murdoch (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for National Geographic)
“I think Art Basel is just an incredible example of how powerful culture can be in convening and, if I think about the impact of bringing a major fair like Art Basel to Miami or something like that, how powerful it can be in the broader community.”
‘You Can’t Stay at the Side of a Genius For Too Long’: Bob Colacello on the Ups and Downs of Life in Andy Warhol’s Orbit
By Naomi Rea
Bob Colacello, Bob Colacello and Fred Hughes (c. 1980). Bob Colacello, “It Just Happened, Photographs 1976-1982.” ©Bob Colacello. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery London | Paris | Salzburg | Seoul.
“As part of Warhol’s inner circle, Colacello was in the room for incredible moments in art history, and he documented the thick of the VIP culture of the late 1970s and early ’80s—from Studio 54 to the White House—on this pocket-sized Minox camera.”
Hito Steyerl on Why NFTs and A.I. Image Generators Are Really Just ‘Onboarding Tools’ for Tech Conglomerates
By Kate Brown
Hito Steyerl, artist, at the opening of “I Will Survive.” (Photo by Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“There are so many reasons why the digital environment we are all trained to take for granted as our immediate reality might suddenly no longer be available.”
‘We’re Not All Ikea-Loving Minimalists’: Historian and Author Michael Diaz-Griffith on the Resurgence of Young Antique Collectors
By Katie White
Michael Diaz-Griffith, a young collector of art and antiques. Photo by Brian W. Ferry.
“Diaz-Griffith wants collectors to reframe how they approach antiques at the most fundamental level, shifting from a focus on provenance—those who owned the objects—to those who made them.”
Finnish Artist Iiu Susiraja Tempers Humor With Honesty
By Annikka Olsen
Iiu Susiraja. Sausage cupid, (2019). Courtesy of the artist, Makasiini Contemporary, and Nino Mier Gallery.
“In a culture and society rife with both discourses and hot takes on beauty standards, social norms, fatphobia, acceptance, sex, and a litany of other themes pertaining to existence, the images compulsively call forth the viewers’ own social conditioning and subsequent cacophony of opinions and feelings.”
‘I Never Wanted to Be Avant-Garde’: Heji Shin Doesn’t Claim Her Provocative Photographs Are Intellectual, But Many of Her Biggest Fans Do
By Taylor Dafoe
Installation view, “Heji Shin: THE BIG NUDES” at 52 Walker, New York. Courtesy of 52 Walker.
“What she’s interested in is difficult to put a finger on, but it has something to do with the economy of images in the 21st century, where news and products and porn all blur together in the fight for real estate on our screens.”
Don’t Touch Anything: Cat Power Covers Bob Dylan and Takes in Marc Hundley’s Epic Show at New York’s Canada Gallery
By William Van Meter
The musician Chan Marshall stands outside of Canada gallery on September 22, 2023. Photo: Elvin Tavarez.
“Marshall looked across the room at the silver-tinged The Narcissus of Pompeii, the other key piece that bookends the exhibition, a depiction of a statue lost in his own beauty. ‘It looks like he’s staring at a cellphone—self-obsessed while lava flows and the world is burning.'”
‘We Wanted Stonehenge’: How Philanthropists Cathy and Peter Halstead Built a Sprawling Sculpture Park in the Montana Wilderness
By Lee Carter
Mark di Suvero, Beethoven’s Quartet (2003). Photo: Erik Petersen. Courtesy of Tippet Rise.
“Where better to site a motley crew of modern and contemporary sculptures than this otherworldly slice of Big Sky Country, where the northern Great Plains shape-shift into the Rockies?”
Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood on Making Art and Music—And Sometimes Both at Once
By Min Chen
Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood, Wall of Eyes (2023). Courtesy of Tin Man Art.
“Looking at these latest paintings, it’s easy to imagine them emerging from a shared subconscious.”
‘I’m Not Rewriting History, but Annotating It’: Curator Helen Molesworth on Her New Career-Spanning Book of Essays
By Taylor Dafoe
Helen Molesworth. © Brigitte Lacombe. Courtesy of Phaidon.
“I’ve been concerned with problems of labor and work. What is work? What is enough work? What is good work? [That question led] to the next problem, which is taste.”
Painter Daniel Richter on Political History, German Identity, and Ugandan Dance
By Kate Brown
Daniel Richter. Courtesy Thaddeus Ropac gallery, London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul. Photo: Eva Herzog.
“I know that my paintings are not very subtle. There is something cowardly about subtlety. I tend to overload.”
Pace Tapped Painter Pam Evelyn as Its Youngest Talent. She Tells Us What’s Behind Her New Show of Tumultuously Beautiful Abstractions
By Emily Steer
Portrait of Pam Evelyn, 2023, photo by Robert Glowacki © Pam Evelyn. Courtesy Pace Gallery.
“It’s not about being skilled. That can also be a bit of a trap. Trying to be clever about it. If it falls into that then you’re just showing off. When I get to something too concrete it feels less interesting than a painting that has lots of loose ends.”
Artist Tomás Saraceno on How He Made the World of Spiders Audible to the Human Ear
By Kate Brown
Tomas Saraceno poses inside his artwork “Algo R(h)i(y)thms” (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
“I got curious because I always loved the universe, planets, and the cosmos. I realized that have universes in our own homes and I became very curious to try to understand spiderwebs better. We found out, in consultation with many arachnologists, that actually there was not a precise model of these very complex geometries.”
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