The 25 Most Important Artists Of 2012 (So Far)
Artists from all genres who've been making big moves this year.
Image via Complex Original
Art in 2012 so far has been nothing short of fantastic. Artists from all parts of the world in all genres are using their work to beautify and make a difference in their local communities and greater society.
A ton of them, like Ai Weiwei and David Choe, have mastered what it means to make a real statement on and offline. Both artists have been jailed and censored, and both have used their art and the power of social media to tell their stories.
Others, like Terry Richardson, Shepard Fairey, and Ellen Von Unwerth, continue to do what they do best, in their own styles, and they still progress. They impressively balance commercial and fine art careers and could easily make every (so far) list that we do.
And others, like ROA, Kid Zoom, and the Seventh Letter crew have refined what they do on the streets in a way that so brilliantly enters the gallery, the blogs, and our social and political consciousnesses. They are the trailblazers, despite often choosing anonymity and subtlety in their approach to great art.
It's not always easy, but this time it wasn't that hard. Take a journey with us through The 25 Most Important Artists Of 2012 (So Far).
Meggs
MEGGS
MEGGS, one of the great blokes from the EVERFRESH crew, is a traveling man. In 2012, he's painted in Hawaii, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. His exhibition at Above Second was awesome. His new work, set for display in SF very, very soon, looks awesome, too. Plus, and here we have to be a little transparent, we had a terrific time with him at Pow Wow.
El Anatsui
El Anatsui
El Anatsui has really taken off in 2012. He just completed two building wrap installations at the outer Galliera at the Musée de la Mode de la Ville for the Paris Triennial and has an epic retrospective that just opened at the Akron Art Museum through October. After the retrospective, he has a new exhibition opening at Jack Shainman in NYC. In any case, these two installations are only the beginning.
Kid Zoom
Kid Zoom
Mr. Ian Strange has had an odd year. It has been relatively quiet, save for a brilliant bus shelter takeover in Melbourne. However, we're still in awe of his ambitious Home exhibition, which included a full-scale replica of his childhood home from memory and closed just before the new year. We're expecting the next six months to yield lots of excitment.
Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane got a lot of attention last year when he photographed Kurt Cobain's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Even with his return to YSL, Slimane continues to photograph bands and muses in such great volume that it's hard to ignore. He's definitely one of the greatest, most multi-faceted artists of our time, and even if we expect his photography to lessen as he returns to fashion, it definitely hasn't let up in 2012.
Poesia
POESIA
POESIA has been a powerhouse for many years. Finally, in 2012, he's getting his dues. His More Force Than Judgement exhibition tied graffiti and renaissance art together, furthering the Bay Area-based artist's push to expand academic discussion of progressive graffiti. We also need to give props to his Graffuturism site, which continues to offer some of the most interesting graffiti content on the web.
EVOL
EVOL
We were super hyped by the prospect of EVOL's exhibition at Jonathan Levine Gallery back in January. When it hit in April, we weren't disappointed. The Berlin-based artist brought his studio work to the United States for the first time, displayed a unique vision of urban life, and has kept us on the look out for more. For that, he gets props.
ROA
ROA
ROA keeps busy, no doubt. His trademark animal murals now bless walls in Australia, Austria, Chile, Sweden, and more. In February, the Belgian held an exhibition at Stockholm's Scarlett Gallery, once again proving that he is master of the indoor/outdoor street art dynamic.
Seventh Letter
The Seventh Letter
Who hasn't been keeping up with The Seventh Letter this year? The crew is powerful. REVOK is in Detroit killing it with his Beautification Project. And, furthermore, a smart collaboration with The Hundreds has brought the TSL approach to graffiti to a whole new audience. ROID's show in London was also major.
David Hockney
David Hockney
He's a British treasure. He believes cigarettes are delicious. He had a major (awesome) exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. He's old, but love technology. He is David Hockney and he is undeniably important.
Ellen Von Unwerth
Ellen Von Unwerth
Ellen Von Unwerth continues to shoot her subjects (namely super hot women) in her signature colorful, in-your-face style. Her Do Not Disturb! exhibition is now on view through August 31, 2012, at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London, featuring a series she shot at San Luis Obispo's iconic Madonna Inn. Her photos of Claudia Schiffer for GUESS' 30th anniversary campaign, in addition to the ones she shot of Valerie van der Graaf for Lovecat, are maybe among her greatest works. It's nice to see a photographer seem to effortlessly balance fine art and commercial roles, as Unwerth has expertly done in 2012.
Eric Yanker
Eric Yahnker
In a year when the art fair landscape of New York City changed significantly (thanks, Frieze), Eric Yahnker stands out among the artists who braved the shifting tides. At the Armory Show, Yahnker's full booth installation at Ambach & Rice was as powerful as it was memorable. Baseballs with false celebrity signatures? Yeah, we love those.
Dabs and Myla
Dabsmyla
Murals, original drawings, and even "Smokey The Bear" cushions. Dabsmyla has kept us amused, and with great regularity, for the last six months through a slew of flat out fun stuff. Making people happy is important. For that reason, Dabsmyla gets a nod on this list.
Sheone
SheOne
Why is SheOne important? For one, he's got a unique style all his own and is a leader in the progressive graffiti movement. More important than that, he gives back. For example, The ZIONSTREET project with WideOpenWalls in Gambia turned 14 villages into living arts projects, creating social uplift and rejuvenating neighborhoods. SheOne's commitment to West Africa didn't end with murals though. On return to the UK, he created a series of paintings exclusively to raise funds for art supplies to fuel the artistic impulse of the children he'd met on his initial trip. Respect due.
Patrick Martinez
Patrick Martinez
If Mr. Martinez was busy in 2011, 2012 has been a whirlwind. He's just opened his latest solo exhibition at Known Gallery, Lovely Day, following group shows in Dallas and Los Angeles. In addition to gallery work, Martinez also produced the cover art for Stalley's Savage Journey To The American Dream. He's taking more risks with his neon signs and, simply put, refining his already strong voice.
Ron English
Ron English
Ron English made our 25 Most Important Artists Of 2011 list, and his work in 2012 has landed him on this latest one, too. Most notably, his toy collaboration with Chris Brown, Dum English, made the art world notice how effortlessly he's been able to collaborate at such a high caliber. What made bigger headlines were these photos of English and Brown painting the Star Skull Astronaut together in L.A., which was sold for $40K. While we are longtime admirers of Ron English and his prolific career, this collaboration definitely catapulted him to the forefront of art and culture, and will likely continue to.
Ryan McGinley
Ryan McGinley
Ryan McGinley's photography continues to reign in 2012 in both the fine art and commercial realms. Whether being an expert documentarian of downtown NYC, youth culture, or anyone considered "outside of society," he reaches people through the rawness, honesty, and quality of his work. His Animals and Grids shows at Team Gallery last May were huge successes, and his new book, Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind is the largest collection of his work to date. 2012 has already been a great year for McGinley, and we have no doubt that the rest of it will be, too.
Todd James
Todd James
REAS continues to capture our imagination. King Of The Wild Frontier, which took over New York's Gering & Lopez Gallery in March and April, was a continuation of James' Somalian themed work… but, this time around the scale simply exploded. He's moved beyond paintings on paper, translating his now iconic figures into full color painted canvases. REAS is bringing an increased graphic punch and taking his fine art career to new heights.
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey
We're endlessly inspired by Shepard Fairey's breadth of work across street art, books, compelling interviews, and collaborations, especially this year so far. His clothing line, OBEY, continues to be awesome, and most recently he did a brilliant redesign of the Rolling Stones logo. He also just returned from doing new work in Paris, which he discusses in this great interview that he posted on his blog. He also did this beautiful tribute mural to MCA in L.A., plus a series for inCase and an installation at the Paris Levis store.
Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson pretty much took over 2011, and his work has been essentiallly ubiquitous in 2012, too. Most recently, his impromptu photoshoot with Lindsay Lohan at Chateau Marmont caught our attention, but let's be honest, everything he's done with Kate Upton, especially the "Cat Daddy" video, has blown up the internet...and other things. He also just did Sky Ferreira's creepy hot video for "Red Lips," these sexy photos of Gisele, these ridiculously fine photos of Rihanna, and (we didn't forget) these popsicle-sucking photos of, yes, Kate Upton. Yeah, he's photographed everyone, and continues to document Gaga on tour, but 2012 is making him even more of a superstar than probably anyone expected.
Keith Haring
Keith Haring
It may seem totally crazy to put a dead artist on this list, but the Keith Haring revival is too big to ignore. In addition to his massive retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum this year, OBEY is doing a clothing series "with him," and so is Urban Outfitters. The Keith Haring Foundation is making solid efforts to keep his legacy alive, and 2012 has certainly been evidence of their success in doing so.
Tom Sachs
Tom Sachs
Tom Sachs is definitely taking 2012 by storm with the arrival of SPACE PROGRAM: MARS, an immersive space odyssey installation at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC. While it's already over, he did an awesome shoe collab and sportswear collab with Nike surrounding the exhibition, both of which were inspired by space travel and space suits. We're hopeful that we'll get more from Tom Sachs in 2012, but even if we don't, SPACE PROGRAM was an amazing feat.
David Choe
David Choe
David Choe continues to kill it in every way. While it's easy to attribute the amount of success he's had in 2012 to the massive amount of press he got for his $200 million-valued Facebook stock, he's still an awesome artist who knows how to market himself. Of course, that's what got him on the radar of Mark Zuckerberg to paint the Facebook offices in the first place, in exchange for those stocks. Most recently, he painted vibrant murals inside the Denver International Airport and updated his Facebook profile with 25 new works that are in various places. David Choe is already poised to be a huge figure in art history, and his work and heightened fame in 2012 are no doubt going to be a part of it.
Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic
It's pretty fantastic that Marina Abramovic is finally getting so much attention inside and outside the art world. We can partly attribute this to the major retrospective she had at MoMA in 2010, but it also seems that people are becoming more interested in performance art and artists, which to us, is a win-win situation. 2012 brought her film titled Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, which documents her career in the context of the moving retrospective. It's safe to say that, in Marina's case, the artist is "present" in more ways than one. We imagine that 2012 has a lot more in store for Marina Abramovic.
KAWS
KAWS
KAWS continues his world art domination, not least with his new solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled The Nature of Need. His 2012 collaborations have included an awesome Ikepod Horizon Watch and teaming up with BNE Water Foundation to give away one of his sculptures for $100 minimum donations to the organization. He's also shown work at Art Basel in Switzerland this month. It's no surprise that we love KAWS and continue to be impressed at his ongoing endeavors.
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei tops this list (again) for obvious reasons. He doesn't stop producing work, showing work, and making headlines for speaking his mind and challenging the Chinese government. 2012 sees the release of his documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by Alison Klayman, which chronicles his work in all mediums including his recent move towards architecture, notably with projects such as the Bird's Nest at the Beijing National Stadium in collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron. It also documents Ai Weiwei's jailing and censorship in 2011 and his outspoken activism online. Ai Weiwei is not only a visionary artist, he's a cultural leader and pioneer of using blogging and social media to connect with others in the spirit of social justice.