2013 has brought with it a number of exhibitions, art fairs, and art pieces that have challenged everything that came before them. Just yesterday, Jay-Z did a performance art piece at Pace Gallery in New York, where he performed the song "Picasso Baby" off of his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, for six hours. At one point, Marina Abramovic joined him to create an unmatched moment of synergy between the mediums of hip-hop and performance art. In short, no art moment in 2013 has been like the next, and many of the shows that have happened so far have set precedents for future ways of showing work (like Donald Judd's 101 Spring Street art-house) or are starting conversations for exhibitions to come (like Jeff Koons' exhibitions at David Zwirner and Gagosian, in preparation for his 2014 retrospective at the Whitney).
Despite our inclusion of many of "the greats" this time around, there are many artists who are just heating up and could feasibly own the rest of 2013. Ryder Ripps completed an impressive "Hypercurrentliving" project with Red Bull (where he drank Red Bull at their headquarters and came up with groundbreaking ideas on Twitter for a few weeks), Os Gemeos announced their collaboration with Hennessy, Shepard Fairey expressed solidarity with the protests in Turkey through a portrait of Ataturk (that he released for free online), and Florentijn Hofman made headlines with his giant inflatable duck sculpture (that subsequently deflated, of course) in Hong Kong.
Throughout the list, there are artists who not only pushed the limits of art but also seemingly pushed their own limits. Enjoy The Most Important Artists of 2013 (So Far).
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