The Most Important Artists of 2013

Image via Complex Original

Exhibitions: "Bigger Exhibition" at de Young Museum 

David Hockney, who is perhaps Britain's most influential living artist today, has always been an innovator. In the 1970s, it was Hockney who accidentally created what he called a "joiner," arranging multiple Polaroid photos in a grid to create an entirely new art form while simultaneously restructuring the art of photography. In October 2013, the avant-garde artist created and showed a new kind of art in "A Bigger Exhibition" at San Francisco's de Young Museum. The exhibition comprises watercolors and charcoal on paper, works on video camera, as well as 150 paintings Hockney hand painted on iPads.

The artist first started this new artistic endeavor on his iPhone nearly five years ago, sharing his creations with his friends through email. "It's a very new medium," he told Huffington Post. "I was pretty amazed by them actually," he said of his final products. While some of the digital renderings are displayed on electronic screens, others have been reproduced on large panels. The most notable of this exhibition is Bigger Yosemite, a digital painting which has been enlarged into a 12-foot high print of Yosemite National Park. Though Hockney isn't sure which direction digital art will be going, it's safe to say he played a role in paving the way for future digital artists this year.

Exhibitions: Inbox Full at "PADDLES ON!"

While 24-year-old digital artist Molly Soda has been creating GIF art and videos for her 30,000 or so Tumblr followers to enjoy, occasionally accepting donations and selling customized pieces to specific buyers, she has never sold a piece a work she wasn't commissioned to make—that is until this year's first ever digital art auction, "PADDLES ON!," a collaborative exhibition and sale put on by Phillips and Tumblr.

"I think a lot of people have issues making money off the work, because it's not a physical thing," she told The Verge. "It's like, 'You're not an artist. Where is your painting?'"

The auction was a triumph for Molly, who sold her piece Inbox Full a webcam video she filmed of herself reading all of the messages in her Tumblr inbox—an 8-hour feat which took a whole of a perseverance. Molly helped changed the very notion of art and reinforced the idea that art doesn't have to be tangible.

Exhibitions: "Bird Shit" at MoMA PS1, "Psycho Nacirema" at Pace Gallery in London, "Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality" at Victoria Miro, starred in "Rebel Dabble Babble" by Damon and Paul McCarthy, Wig / Costume 2 at Frieze London, and "Animals" at Colette

It's been a busy year for the modern day Renaissance man that is James Franco. Not only did Franco grace Complex's June/July cover and star in two major Hollywood films in 2013, but the actor-cum-artist has also managed to present himself as a serious contender in the art world. Throughout the year, Franco has relentlessly created his own art and curated exhibitions at various international leading galleries too. In April, Franco moderated a multimedia performance entitled Bird Shit at MoMA PS1. Then in June, his first solo exhibition "Psycho Nacirema" opened at Pace London, as well as "Cinematic Visions," a group exhibition he curated for Victoria Miro Gallery. In October, he released a feature-length film entitled As I Lay Dying, had a piece Wig / Costume 2 from his "Psycho Nacirema" exhibition show at Frieze London, and had his "Animals" exhibition show at Colette. All his artistic endeavors has even brought him attention from some of the biggest artists in 2013 as well.

Franco starred in Paul and Damon McCarthy's installation and video project "Rebel Dabble Babble," which was on display at Hauser and Wirth from June 20 to July 26. Marina Abramovic is also working on film about Franco's life too. Not only has Franco created his own art in 2013, but he's written books and essays on art as well.

In July, he also released Moving Pictures / Moving Sculptures: The Films of James Franco, a book of explanations (and DVDs) on Franco's films and his passion for art—and it features an introduction from Abramovic and an essay by art theorist Francisco J. Ricardo. In August, Franco Photoshopped his face onto the two women in Paul McCarthy's WS and uploaded the image onto his Instagram. Then Vice featured the same photo along with an essay on Paul and Damon McCarthy by Franco himself. The artist now also has his own weekly, hour-long show James Franco Presents on Ovation TV, in which he discusses art and interviews those he admires. (Click here for a comprehensive list from earlier this year.)

While Jay Z has made it pretty clear he'd like to get his hands on a painting by Pablo Picasso for his art collection, we're betting the rapper probably wouldn't say no to a Francis Bacon piece either.

In "Picasso Baby," Hov name drops the late artist who died in 1992, rapping: "Bacons and turkey bacons, smell the aroma." Then on November 13, Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold at Christie's New York for $142.4 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold, breaking a record previously held by Edvard Munch's Scream. All hail Bacon.

Exhibitions: "Robert Indiana: Beyond Love" at the Whitney Museum

Though the world may be familiar with Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE typography, found in sculptures, prints, paintings, and souvenirs across the globe, not much attention was given to the 85-year-old artist's other works until this year.

In September, "Robert Indiana: Beyond Love," a retrospective opened at the Whitney Museum, celebrating and rekindling New York's relationship with the artist, who left the city in 1978 for Maine after being "blackballed" by the Leo Castelli, Andy Warhol, and the artists of that time. "It started a long time ago with the Castelli gang. I have never been given a museum retrospective in New York, but all my peers have," Indiana said in a 2012 interview, according to The Art Newspaper.

His LOVE typography was problematic in ways, too. On the one hand, it brought him much acclaim—even becoming a design for a specialty Maine license plate. But his LOVE design also brought him grief, as the work was never copyrighted and dominated his career as an artist.

'Love' cinched my whole career, it put me on the map," he told The Art Newspaper. "But, it has also caused me grief and unhappiness, rip-offs and endless unpleasantness." In 2013, however, the world finally glimpsed a comprehensive collection of Indiana's works, which explore common symbols in 1960s America and challenged conventions of that time.

Exhibitions: "If I Was To Draw A Line, This Journey Started Approximately 400 km North of the Equator" at South London Gallery

Two years ago, Oscar Murillo made just enough to afford art school, selling his paintings for less than $3,000. Now, the 27-year-old Colombian-artist is backed by David Zwirner Gallery (as of September 2013), and art collectors are calling him the next Jean-Michel Basquiat.

It's a fitting comparison; Murillo's messy scribbles on canvas, which emphasizes the process of creation and explores his cultural background, call to mind Basquiat's loose, disorderly paintings. The prices of Murillo's abstract paintings have soared astronomically as well.

In June, for example, an untitled 2011 painting sold for $389,199 at Christie's in London. "He's had the quickest upward trajectory for his age of any artist I've seen in 25 years," Kenny Schachter, a London-based dealer and curator, told Bloomberg. "There's a lot of money to be made trading Oscar Murillo at this point."

And if the millions he raked in at Frieze London aren't enough evidence that 2013 is Murillo's year, the artist also opened his first major solo show "If I Was To Draw A Line, This Journey Started Approximately 400 km North of the Equator" at South London Gallery in November.

Exhibitions: MEƎM: A STORY BALLET ABOUT THE INTERNET for Performa 13 at The Connelly Theater in the East Village, New York.

With all this hype and paranoia over the government looking into our online activity and the first ever digital art auction happening in 2013, it seems the Internet has become an inescapable and even more relevant element of daily life. The visionary Ryan McNamara recognized this much, crafting a piece entitled MEƎM: A STORY BALLET ABOUT THE INTERNET, which won him the prize of Performa 13, the fifth iteration of New York's live art biennial.

At the East Village's Connelly Theater, McNamara staged an immersive ballet performance, which challenged audience members' perceptions of the Internet. Viewers were transported around the stage on dollies, while the ballet dancers carried out a series of micro-performances. For his unconventional, thought-provoking ballet, McNamara took home the Malcolm McLaren Award, which honors the late artist McLaren, and $10,000 in prize money—an award well-deserved.

Exhibitions: Video installation Wantee at the 2013 Turner Prize exhibition

It's been a big year for Laure Prouvost, who won this year's Turner Prize, a annual award bestowed upon a British artist under the age of 50. 35-year-old Prouvost, who was born in France but has lived in London since enrolling in Central St. Martins at 18, was an underdog in this year's competition. It seemed unlikely that Prouvost would win, judging from public opinion and the bookmakers who bet on the winners.

In the end, however, Prouvost took home the £25,000 ($41,000) prize for her video installation Wantee. The film takes viewers into a dusty room of old-fashioned tablecloths, dainty tea sets, ramshackle chairs, and other curious objects. It tells the fictional tale of a grandfather who's friends with Kurt Schwitters.

"What is great about the Turner Prize is that people see the work," Ms. Prouvost told The New York Times. "I am coming from the experimental scene and questioning the idea of telling the story and making moving images. Even if you don't like my work, I think the prize has a power in that way. It creates discussion whether positive or negative."

Exhibitions: "Blessings" at Half Gallery

It seemed only natural for Kanye West, considerably one of the the most controversial figures in rap, to recruit Wes Lang as the designer of the Yeezus tour apparel. Not unlike the rapper, Lang has never taken heed of public opinion and made quite a stir earlier this year with his designs. The merchandise Lang made consisted of t-shirts emblazoned with his familiar imagery of Grim Reapers, Native Americans, as well as something a bit more provocative than his usual—skeletons swathed in Confederate flags.

"I like to take American history and then completely ignore it," he told Interview Magazine in 2009. "I come at it visually, taking images and telling my own story." Evidently, nothing has changed since 2009, and Wes Lang is still a bad ass, opening a solo show "Blessings" at New York's Half Gallery in November.

Exhibitions: A Lot of Sorrow at MoMA PS1 and "The Visitors" at Luhring Augustine and HangarBicocca

Though Jay Z made quite a buzz with his six-hour performance at Pace Gallery this summer, it was Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson who did it first. "Yeah, Jay Z is ripping me off. You can't imagine how proud I am," the artist told ArtInfo in late July.

Back in May, Kjartansson enlisted The National to stage a six-hour performance A Lot of Sorrow, entitled at MoMA PS1 as the final act of 2013's first season of the museum's Sunday Sessions. The National appropriately played their song "Sorrow" from 12 in the afternoon until 6 p.m. The performance not only tested the endurance of the musicians and audience, but it also revealed the capacities of repetition and music in general. By the end of the performance, what had begun as a somber, break up song had evolved into a cathartic, almost hopeful and tenacious tune. Kjartansson, who's known for his durational performances, did something similar at the beginning of 2013 with his nine-screen video installation, "The Visitors."

In "The Visitors," Kjartansson can be seen soaking in a bathtub, plucking a guitar, and singing the same eight words, "Once again, I fall into my feminine ways," over and over again for an hour; and in the other projectors, his friends add to the harmony, playing their own instruments. The exhibition, which first made its debut in early 2013 at Luhring Augustine, reopened at HangarBicocca in December and will be on view until January 5, 2014.

Exhibitions: "James Turrell: Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures" at Pace Gallery in New York, "James Turrell Perspectives" at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Md., "Soon Than Later, Roden Crater" at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, "James Turrell: A Retrospective" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "James Turrell: The Light Inside" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and "James Turrell" at the Guggenheim Museum

While James Turrell was busy transforming the Guggenheim Museum with his reinterpretation of Frank Lloyd Wright's rotunda, he was also simultaneously taking over not one but four art museums in the United States this year.

At the Guggenheim Museum, visitors swarmed the site of Turrell's feature installation, the large-scale, color-changing Aten Reign. The Guggenheim retrospective also featured several of Turrell's earlier pieces, much like three other exhibitions at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Md., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In 2013, Turrell also opened "James Turrell: Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures" at New York's Pace Gallery and "Soon Than Later, Roden Crater" at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Los Angeles. Both exhibitions highlighted the Roden Crater, an extinct volcano located in northern Arizona, which Turrell has been working with since the 1970s. Four of Turrell's works were also shown at Hansol Museum in South Korea this year.

Exhibitions: A public exhibition for New York City Ballet's NYCB Art Series, "Where Wild Won't Break" at Dallas Contemporary, and the return of the "Deluxx Fluxx" arcade at Art Basel Miami Beach.

FAILE has been hustling since the very first days of 2013. In January, the Brooklyn-based art duo partnered up with New York City Ballet and launched the ballet company's Art Series with a public exhibition. FAILE also hand-carved and painted 21 FAILE Wheels, which were inspired by Tibetan prayer wheels and displayed at the David H. Koch Theater for the second portion of their collaboration with NYC Ballet. Over the summer, FAILE contributed a colorful mural for street art project "Cash, Cans, and Candy" in Vienna. As one of many heavy hitters in the realm of street art, FAILE partook in "10 Years of Wooster Collective," exhibiting a black and white silkscreen at a Jonathan LeVine pop-up gallery in Chelsea, New York. Around the same time, FAILE's "Where Wild Won't Break" opened at Dallas Contemporary. And finally, 2013 also saw the return of FAILE's Deluxx Fluxx arcade, which they first showed in New York and London in 2010. FAILE worked together with BÄST to update the interactive piece, which was opened to the public to play from December 3-8.

Exhibitions: An exhibition at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy, "#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei" at the Hampstead Theatre in London, "Baby Formula 2013" at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong, "Ordos 100 Models" at Galleria Continua, Le Moulin in Boissy-le-Châtel, France, and "FRAMED" at Duddell's in Hong Kong

Ever since Ai Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport in 2011, the outspoken, dissident artist has been under heavy scrutiny by the Chinese authorities. Though Weiwei has long since been released from jail, he was confined to Beijing for a year, and he's currently still not allowed to leave the confines of China. Nonetheless, Weiwei been busy with his artistic endeavors and push for creative freedom outside his native country. He has done so much, in fact, it may be easier to address what the artist hasn't done in 2013 than what he has done.

2013 saw the close of Weiwei's first exhibition of 760 bicycles at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy, his series of sculptures Aibudao with Eric So, a play "#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei" detailing his imprisonment, his album cover for Secret 7", a 1,000-tent installation for the Emscherkunst Triennial Art Festival, his "Baby Formula 2013" installation at Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong, his first heavy metal song "Dumbass" and metal album The Divine Comedy, his "S.A.C.R.E.D." dioramas, his illustrious paper cut-out cover for TIME, another sculpture series Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads at the Art Gallery of Ontario, his music video for "Laoma Tihua," among other works for the Venice Biennale and videos gone viral. But the list doesn't stop there.

More recently, Weiwei has created a homemade spray can, which can be projected to block out surveillance cameras and has generously offered a step-by-step guide on how to make it, as part of Han Ulrich Obrist's Do It: The Compendium. In September, Weiwei teamed up with Swiss architectural firm Herzog and de Meuron to create 100 models of pinewood houses, called "Ordos 100 Models" at Galleria Continua, Le Moulin in Boissy-le-Châtel, France. He also released a collection of skateboard decks for The Sk8room, featuring familiar images from his previous pieces and bold messages from the badass artist.

In October, the artist curated an exhibition "FRAMED" at Hong Kong's Duddell's, featuring his own works and those of other Hong Kong artists.

Weiwei then released an interactive website called Moon with Olafur Eliasson and premiered his film Stay Home! at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival in November.

Finally, in December, Weiwei received approval to host an exhibition at San Francisco's Alcatraz—which will be the first former prison in California to host a major arts show.

Exhibitions: Six video portraits of Lady Gaga, which debuted at artRave, and "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic" at Park Avenue Armory

Robert Wilson was one of the many artists who played a role in Lady Gaga's artRave extravaganza in November of this year. Before that, however, he worked with the singer on a reenactment of David's 19th-century painting The Death of Marat, and he filmed a performance piece by Gaga, as well. Though no footage of Gaga's performance has been released, her 45-minute performance sounds like quite a provocative one; it features a nude and tied up Lady Gaga dangling upside-down from a ceiling in London. The avant-garde playwright also showed six video portraits of the pop queen at the artRave event, which glorified the convergence of art and music.

Then in December, Wilson merges theater, opera, and visual art in his much-anticipated "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic," which opens at the Park Avenue Armory at the end of this week. For the production, Wilson re-imagined the life of Marina Abramovic and offers fans a narrative of her life story up until the present day.

Exhibitions: "I Who Have Arrived in Heaven" at David Zwirner Gallery

Yayoi Kusama's "I Who Have Arrived in Heaven" opened at David Zwirner Gallery, captivating spectators and gleaming as bright as the show's "Infinity Mirrored Rooms." In November, the massive exhibition took over the gallery space's three showrooms with large-scale installations made up of twinkling lights and psychedelic paintings.

The magical exhibition took viewers into Kusama's "cosmic realm" and forced them to contemplate the 84-year-old artist's lingering questions on death and existence. The exhibition has brought much attention to Kusama, who went on to design and speckle George Clooney's Armani suit for the cover of W magazine's "The Art Issue." 

Many thought that last year was Kusama's year, given her giant exhibition at the Whitney Museum; however, this show at Zwirner was so brilliant (and well-attended), that it put her right back on everyone's radar. Also, this pumpkin made by her (that David Zwirner brought to Art Basel Miami Beach) is awesome.

Exhibitions: "Inez and Vinoodh" at Gagosian Gallery in Paris and in Los Angeles

Lady Gaga's ARTPOP may have cemented the bond between art and music, but she wouldn't have been able to do so without the help of photographers Inez and Vinoodh. The Dutch photography duo has worked with the pop singer for quite some time. From 2011 until 2012, Lady Gaga released five fashion films, which she had worked on with Inez and Vinoodh, but they did a lot of work together in 2013, as well.

In January, the photographers opened their first exhibition with Gagosian Gallery in Paris. Then in July, they launched what would be the beginning of Lady Gaga's ARTPOP celebration with a series of photographs at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Many of the photos featured the barely-clad (and in some photos, nude) Gaga posing provocatively and lounging on the Binary Chair 01 by Benjamin Rollins Caldwell.

They also directed the music video for "Applause," Gaga's lead single for ARTPOP. Days after the release of ARTPOP in November, the singer also unveiled four diptychs the photographers shot of her at artRave. Finally, Gaga also recently released An ARTPOP Film, directed by Inez and Vinoodh, originally shown for the first time at ArtRave. The two-minute film features various looks the singer has donned for her ARTPOP photo shoots, accompanied by a voice-over on the pains of creating her most recent album.

As if that's not enough, the duo released their book Pretty Much Everything with TASCHEN, giving a retrospective look at their work. Inez and Vinoodh have solidified their presence as two of the greatest photographers alive, and joining Gagosian Gallery and working with Gaga brought their work to an all new, ultimately appreciate audience.

Exhibitions: "GISWIL" at Art Basel, Switzerland, "Ohhh..." at KaiKai Kiki Gallery, "KAWS @ PAFA" at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, "UPS AND DOWNS" at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo.,"KAWS" at Mary Boone Gallery, and "PASS THE BLAME" at Galerie Perrotin

While a certain pop star may have twerked all over the stage at this year's MTV VMAs, she wasn't able to steal the glory from KAWS, the mastermind behind the award show's stage design. For the 2013 MTV VMAs, KAWS re-imagined the iconic astronaut as his own x-eyed character, Companion. He also designed all of the visual imagery, which included a massive, 60-foot inflatable of his fresh, new Moonman replacement. Days after KAWS took over the VMAs, the artist unveiled his new mural for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Outside of award shows and murals, however, KAWS also held "GISWIL" during Art Basel in Switzerland, "Ohhh..." at KaiKai Kiki Gallery in Tokyo back in May, " "KAWS @ PAFA," an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in early October, and "UPS AND DOWNS" at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo., which was also in October. On November 2, visitors crowded around KAWS' bold, vibrant-colored paintings and giant wooden Companion sculptures at Mary Boone Gallery and Galerie Perrotin. 

While KAWS' ascent to a highly regarded visual artist in the fine art world has been swift, he's certainly done so with grace and an understanding of retaining his own style. As he gets bigger and bigger, we look forward to seeing how he navigates both the commercial and non-commercial sides of his iconic work.

Exhibitions: "Wrinkles of the City" at Galerie Henrik Springmann, "Belle de Mai / Unframed" at Friche La Belle de Mai, "Wrinkles of the City, Havana" at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, "JR" at Cincinatti Contemporary Arts Center, and "JR: Actions" at Lazarides Rathbone

Though French artist JR has been working on his Inside Out project for the past two years, the world got an epic look at the project's progress and highlights in the spring of 2013. After the TriBeCa Film Festival's premiere of Alastair Siddons' Inside Out film (which documents JR's project), Times Square Arts commissioned the French artist to fill the screen and grounds of Times Square with his black and white images. JR also showed Inside Out at Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam, Netherlands this year. 

2013 also saw JR take on cities internationally like Cartagena, Spain, Shanghai, China, L.A., and Havana, photographing and flyposting large-scale portraits of the city's senior citizens on building walls throughout the area. In April, "Wrinkles of the City," an exhibition showcasing the work he had done in Berlin opened at Berlin's Galerie Henrik Springmann. In May, New York's Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery opened "Wrinkles of the City, Havana, Cuba," which as its name suggests, featured the work he and fellow artist José Parlá did in Havana. 

JR also had a solo museum exhibition open at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and a retrospective titled "JR" open at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. It will be open until February 2, 2014 and features over a decade of the his groundbreaking works. A two-part solo exhibition "ACTIONS," featuring many of his global works and the Inside Out photobooth truck, opened at Lazarides Rathbone in October. 

The artist will be uniting with Woodkid for the New York Ballet in January, and there is also a JR x Pharrell collaboration in the works. Judging by the two artists' friendship and this Instagram photo, it'll only be a matter of time before we see the final product.

Projects:  Marina Abramovic's appearance in Jay Z's "Picasso Baby" music video, her film of Lady Gaga practicing "The Abramovic Method," and "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic" at Park Avenue Armory

Save for what she reveals in her performances, Marina Abramovic is something of an enigma—more expressive through actions than words. In 2013, however, the grandmother of performance art took to Reddit, revealing some details about her personal life and upcoming projects during an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session.

Abramovic's responses followed the artist's epic appearance at the filming of Jay Z's "Picasso Baby" music video at Pace Gallery, where she briefly shared a platform with Hov. No stranger to collaborations, despite shocking us by engaging with two giant celebrities in such a shot amount of time, Abramovic also created a film of Lady Gaga practicing "The Abramovic Method" for Gaga's artRave.

Last but not least, Abramovic reached her Kickstarter goal of $600,000 to found the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), which aims to foster and research performance art. The MAI will open sometime in 2015, but we're sure the world will see much more of Abramovic before then.

Exhibitions: "Gazing Ball" at David Zwirner and "Jeff Koons: New Paintings and Sculpture" at Gagosian Gallery

Not only did Jeff Koons set a new World Auction Record for a Living Artist, selling his Balloon Dog (Orange) for a whopping $58,405,000 in November, but the modern day king of pop art also became best friends with the queen of pop music in 2013.

In just a year, Koons has designed the cover of ARTPOP for Gaga (and many other sculptures), created a sculpture and box design for Dom Perignon, held exhibitions at both Gagosian Gallery and David Zwirner, done a series of interviews with Pharrell, and showed his famous BMW Art Car at Art Basel in December.

With such an impressive list of accomplishments in just 2013 alone, getting him out into the public and onto the radars of young people in big ways, Koons has shown no signs of slowing down; he has a major retrospective planned to hit the Whitney Museum in summer 2014. Oh, and we can't forget about the time Koons nearly broke the Internet after he decided to join Twitter and Instagram, cementing his desire to communicate with mass culture in bigger ways than ever before.

Exhibitions: "Easter Island" at Galerie Perrotin in Paris, Snarkitecture's "The White Room" collaboration with Chromeo at Milk Studios, "#recollections" at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, "#TOMORROWSPAST" at Ron Mandos Gallery, "#YESTERDAYSFUTURES (PART I)" at Escape Louis Vuitton Singapore, "#YESTERDAYSFUTURES (PART II)" at School of Arts in Singapore, "#FUTUREARCHIVE" at Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong, and "FUTURE RELIC" at Art Basel Miami Beach

Arsham was one of four artists commissioned by Louis Vuitton to illustrate a series of creative travel books. His pictures of Easter Island were then shown at "Easter Island," held in Paris' Galerie Perrotin this May.

Then, back in September, Daniel Arsham teamed up with Pharrell to create four futuristic Casio MT-500 sculptures, after the first keyboard model Pharrell ever used to make music. The sculptures were shown at the Standard Hotel in New York. Soon afterward, Arsham and Alex Mustonen, known collectively as the architecture firm Snarkitecture, collaborated with Chromeo, taking over Milk Studios with a two-day installation The White Room to help promote the electrofunk duo's upcoming White Women album.

Arsham has been all over the world this year, as well, with exhibitions opening in London, Singapore, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Hong Kong. He unveiled "#recollections," his first-ever London show at the Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in October. It featured Arsham's famous sculptures as well as a preview of Arsham and Jonaeh Bokaer's Occupant performance on the opening night, whose full performance premiered at the Adrienne Arsht Center during Art Basel Miami Beach. In October, Arsham also opened "#YESTERDAYSFUTURES (PART I)" at Escape Louis Vuitton Singapore and "#YESTERDAYSFUTURES (PART II)" at the School of Arts in Singapore; both were in conjunction with the Singapore Biennale 2013. 

His exhibition "#TOMORROWSPART" showed at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam, a show featuring sculptures of crumbling, ruined technologies, not unlike those he created with Pharrell. Lastly, the artist's "FUTUREARCHIVE" exhibition of post-apocalyptic sculptures traveled to the Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong and is being shown through December 21. Also at this year's Art Basel, Arsham premiered the first of his FUTURE RELIC film projects at Art Basel. It is a story which centers on a mobile phone, designed by Arsham, featuring music by Swizz Beatz and costumes by Richard Chai. 

Between his own work and his work with Snarkitecture, Arsham showed that though his work makes important commentary on time and temporality, he isn't going anywhere.

Exhibitions: Rain Room at MoMA PS1 and Rain Room at Barbican Centre in London

Perhaps the most-discussed art piece in New York this summer, Random International's Rain Room first debuted at Barbican Center in London before making its way to the United States. It drew viewers from near and far to MoMA, who waited in line for hours, eager to spend even a few minutes inside the pitch-black walls of the London-based art collective's installation.

Captivating and engaging in just about every sense—not to mention an epic photo opportunity—Rain Room consists of technology which detects human bodies and releases rainfall wherever it detected that no one was there, so in that moment, the spectators would then become works of art themselves.

Exhibitions: "Paul McCarthy: Life Cast," "Paul McCarthy: Sculptures," and "Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy: Rebel Dabble Babble" at Hauser and Wirth in New York, and "WS" at Park Avenue Armory

Paul McCarthy has a lot to boast about in 2013. Back in spring, Hauser and Wirth dedicated its entire spring program to the provocative, headline-grabbing artist, even collaborating with his son Damon McCarthy for one exhibition. McCarthy showed not one but three exhibitions at Hauser and Wirth, and each had no shortage of nude sculptures and films.

Then, hot on the heels of his Hauser and Wirth shows, the artist took over Park Avenue Armory in June with "WS," an equally controversial, NC-17 rated show. His installation attracted 11,000 visitors in the first two weeks, as both the boldest and most controversial show the Armory has ever shown. Perhaps this is just a testament to McCarthy's idea that no matter how grotesque nudity, gore, and sexuality may be, they will always sell in America.

Exhibitions: "Chris Burden: Extreme Measures" at New Museum

Currently showing at the New Museum until Jan. 12, 2014, Chris Burden's "Extreme Measures" is the artist's first major U.S. exhibition in over 25 years. It showcases some of the installation artist's most memorable works from his 40-year career, with installations on each of the museum's five floors. His installations examine both the limitations and potential of working with industrial structures and machinery. In addition, Burden's (Ghost Ship) and two of his 30-foot sculptures are also displayed on the exterior of the museum.

Burden's latest exhibition has brought him much attention, landing him a commissioned installation with The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The museum has revealed that Burden's upcoming project will be a massive, outdoor work inspired by a quote from the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis—"If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold," to be completed by April 2014.

Exhibitions: "Better Out Than In" in New York

Banksy took up residency in New York this past October, transforming the city into a platform for his month-long project "Better Out Than In." Each day, the world awaited the announcement of a new Banksy piece by way of the artist's Instagram and flocked to the scene of the latest mural. Unfortunately for Banksy fans, most of his works would go up, only to be tagged or buffed over within mere hours. Regardless, "Better Out Than In" was crucial in that it provided not only 31 new Banksy works but also sparked conversations about the state of art today. Even before Banksy's epic month in New York, complete with a brilliant, sneaky sale in Central Park, the artist changed the life of a homeless man in California.

In June, the world learned of Tachowa Covington, who had lived in an abandoned water tank near the Pacific Coast Highway since 2004 until 2011, when Banksy was in town promoting Exit Through the Gift Shop. Banksy saw the water tank, hoisted on stilts with a tap protruding from its one end, and decided it resembled an elephant; thus, he spray painted the words "This looks a bit like an elephant" on the tank. Weeks later, a company decided to buy the water tank, displacing the homeless Covington. After Banksy heard the news, he decided to donate enough money for Covington to find a home and pay a year's worth of bills.

Love him or hate him, Banksy owned this year and changed the dialogue about art and art history forever.