The Most Important Artists of 2014

Image via Complex Original

Kara Walker's A Subtlety was one of the must-see art events of the summer, with lines around the block of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. For the project, Walker used 160,000 pounds of sugar to erect a “mammy sphinx,” a glistening white creature that was half-woman, half-lion. She also made dark sculptures from sugar and resin depicting boys harvesting sugar. The piece was so popular because it was close to many New Yorkers' hearts. In addition to commenting on the history of sugar plantations and production, it also addressed the changing landscape of New York, as it was the last time visitors would be allowed inside the condemned New York architectural icon.

Months after the Domino Sugar Factory's doors were closed to the public, Walker revealed that she recorded a video of people visiting A Subtlety. The video, titled An Audience shows the factory mobbed with smartphones, making us question if technology has made it harder for us to appreciate art. Walker is also exhibiting the paw of the Sugar Sphinx at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery in Chelsea, New York along with paintings and drawings for an exhibition called “Afterword” until Jan. 17.

From Jan. 24 to May 14 of this year, the Guggenheim Museum became home to the last leg of Carrie Mae Weems' traveling retrospective. Called “Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video,” the show explored the career of the black contemporary photographer, from her almost theatrical black-and-white photographs to her videos, written works, and audio recordings. To coincide with her retrospective, Weems also put on “Carrie Mae Weems LIVE: Past Tense/Future Perfect” at the Guggenheim, where she invited artists of all disciplines, along with writers, filmmakers, and critics for a weekend of programming. Weems was also honored at the Guggenheim Gala this year, and she received the 2014 Luci Foundation Award and a BET Award.

In addition to her show at the Guggenheim, Weems also exhibited a project at the Studio Museum in Harlem called “The Museum Series,” where she posed facing away from the camera in front of famous museums around the world. The project questioned the place of African Americans in canonized Western art history. Across the Pond, Weems also held a solo show at London's Pippy Houndsworth Gallery last month called “Color: Real and Imagined.”

Emma Sulkowicz was a relatively unknown visual arts student at Columbia University when she decided to pick up a mattress in artistic protest. As a way to call attention to the fact that her alleged rapist had not been expelled from the University, Sulkowicz began carrying her mattress around campus from class to class. The ongoing performance calls attention to the administration's insufficient reaction to sexual assault cases, an alarming epidemic that's happening in colleges across the country.

As Sulkowicz has continued to carry her mattress, classmates have volunteered to help her, bearing the weight of the bedding themselves. Other students across the country who have similarly been hurt and frustrated by their colleges' handling of sexual assault incidents have begun carrying their own mattresses in solidarity with Sulkowicz's performance piece. Last month, various student groups joined the artist's protest by placing their own mattresses on Columbia's fields, something the school has been attempting to fine them for, further revealing the problems in the University's administration.

If it was possible for Jeff Koons to get even more famous (he's already sold the most expensive artwork for a living artist in history), this was the year that it happened. Koons' retrospective at the Whitney Museum, the last in the museum's Upper East Side location, drew crowds across the country. The show examined different periods in Koons' career, from his X-rated works featuring him and his porn star ex-wife to his “Celebration” series that included a giant Play-Doh pile 10 years in the making. While Koons had often been shunned by “real” lovers of art who've seen him as producing big, shiny things for rich people, the critical reaction to the show just reaffirmed his genius.

Koons mania didn't stop at the Whitney show. The artist also designed a living installation for Rockefeller Plaza, a sculpture made from flowers and grasses in the shape of his Split-Rocker piece. He also created a virtual reality piece for the cover of GARAGE Magazine, which could be viewed through and iPhone app. Koons also appeared completely naked for a profile in Vanity Fair, and he raked in even more money when his Popeye statue sold for $28.2 million at auction this year.

Most recently, Koons joined forces with Hèrmes for Project Perpetual, a charity organization to benefit global humanitarian issues. For the collaboration, Koons designed a series of readymade sculptures that included Birkin bags. This was following his collaboration with H&M earlier in the year, which produced a bag covered in Koons' Balloon Dog. Currently, Gagosian Gallery is showing Koons' “Hulk Elvis” exhibition in Hong Kong.

Takashi Murakami's epic exhibition at New York's Gagosian Gallery (open until Jan. 17) is filled with anime-inspired creatures, mythical landscapes, deformed monsters, and a replica of an ancient temple. “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow” is a departure for Murakami, offering a more sinister version of his cute visual vocabulary. It's easy to see, however, the way his practice has evolved. Earlier this year, Murakami screened his first feature-length film, Jellyfish Eyes. The film combined live action and CGI characters to tell the story of children playing games until a point of destruction. Through his cute and cuddly characters, Murakami tackles heavier issues. In July, Murakami opened a show at the Palazzo Reale in Milan called “The Arhat Cycle,” addressing the Fukushima disaster. He also released a remix to the theme song of Jellyfish Eyes featuring Pharrell as an animated character.

Whenever a new Banksy piece hits the streets, people can't help but go wild. Following his 2013 “Better Out Than In” street art residency in New York, Banksy was relatively quiet until April of 2014, when two new murals by the artist appeared in the UK. One in London showed spies listening in on a phone booth, an obvious critique of government surveillance. The other appeared on a wall in Bristol and depicted two people embracing who were distracted by their cellphones. Mobile Lovers, as the piece was called, caused a controversy when a youth organization stripped it from a wall and then sold it on the Antiques Roadshow.

In addition to creating actual street art pieces, Banksy also helped the directors behind Banksy Does New York, a documentary about his street art residency pulled together from crowd-funded videos, pictures, and tweets, to tell his story. Earlier this year, he also created a video for the “#WithSyria” campaign with actor Idris Elba. Currently, Banksy's work is being shown at New York's Castor Gallery.

Digital artist Ryder Ripps seems to be only on the rise, but not without stirring up controversy. The young artist was profiled in The New York Times, where he was described as “the consummate Internet cool kid, as fluent in HTML and JavaScript as in the language of conceptual art.” Yet he received a lot of heat this month for a project called ART WHORE, where he hired people from Craigslist’s “Casual Encounters” section to draw pictures in a room in the Ace Hotel. Many, including the arts organization Rhizome, saw his project as offensive and exploitative.

Yet despite this setback, it doesn't seem like Ripps is going anywhere. In July, he gave a presentation in L.A., which was moderated by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, about his "Ho" series. The series is a set of strange paintings of digitally warped Instagram photos from model Adrianne Ho's account. Also, he's already confirmed that he is working on a project with none other than Kanye West.

L.A.-based artist Sterling Ruby moved into the world of fashion this year with a much-anticipated collaboration with designer Raf Simmons. The designs feature spacey graphics on black and camo garments, and were first seen modeled by Travi$ Scott for RSVP Gallery. In addition to the collection, which flew off racks, Ruby also displayed work at New York's Hauser & Wirth for “Sunrise Sunset,” an exhibition that included enormous, colorful sculptures, large paintings, and a mobile.

Shanzhai Biennial isn't really a biennial in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a collective happening made up of Cyril Duval, Avena Gallagher, and Babak Radboy. When they come together, their practice explores the interaction between art, fashion, and branding. This year the trio staged a project at Frieze London for Shanzhai Biennial No. 3, where they attempted to sell a house. Titled “100 Hamilton Terrace,” the two installations at Frieze London were retail campaigns to sell a multi-million dollar mansion.

Always blending advertising with art, last year the collective also created the album cover for Fatima Al Qadiri's Asiatisch, and they worked with the fashion brand TELFAR on a project. In March, Shanzhai Biennial produced ironic sneakers for DIS' “DISown” exhibition that look like adidas knockoffs.

26-year-old Korakrit Arunanondchai hosted his first solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 in March. During the show, he presented 2012-2555, the first in a trilogy of trippy video installations. He also brought bleached denim pillows to CLEARING gallery in Bushwich for “Painting with History in a Room Filled with Men with Funny Names,” and he was included in SculptureCenter's group show “In Practice: Double Life” this year.

The Bangkok-born artist is known for elaborate video trailers that drum up enthusiasm for his exhibitions. In a similar stunt to draw crowds (although not for himself), Arunanondchai started a Kickstarter campaign offering an original print for anyone who donated to Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's first show in the U.S. This certainly won't be the last we see of the young artist.