Observer’s 2025 Art Power Index: The Art Market’s Most Influential People

Refik Anadol

• Dataland | Founder & Artistic Director

It’s hard to think about A.I. art without thinking about Refik Anadol—that’s how profoundly he’s shaped the field. From blockbuster installations like Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations at MoMA to his relentless pursuit of A.I. as a creative medium, Anadol has transformed how we experience data, memory and perception. His work, which merges machine intelligence, architecture, and new media art, is part of major institutional collections, including MoMA, Kunsthaus Zürich, Istanbul Modern and the Museum of the Future.

Now he’s pushing boundaries again with Dataland, the world’s first A.I. art museum, originally set to open at The Grand LA this year but now debuting in spring of 2026. “While Dataland will primarily focus on creating new, site-specific projects exclusive to the museum, we plan to also feature some key projects from our past to offer visitors a glimpse into the broader context of our work,” Anadol told Observer. The space will also support emerging artists and expand the place of digital art in mainstream culture. “Since beginning my journey, I’ve dreamed of moving digital art out of the margins and into the mainstream. It’s inspiring to witness this vision coming to life,” he added. A vocal advocate for ethical A.I., Anadol launched the “Make It Fair” campaign to promote transparency and accountability in creative technology—a mission that earned him recognition on the TIME100 A.I. Impact Awards list in 2025.

Vincenzo de Bellis

• Art Basel | Chief Artistic Officer & Global Director of Art Fairs

At the helm of Art Basel since 2022, Vincenzo de Bellis has redefined what it means to run a global art fair brand. As director overseeing all fairs and exhibition platforms, he has shaped the format, tone and exhibitor selection across Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong—while steering the brand into new territory with the launch of a Paris edition in 2022 and the upcoming inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, slated for early 2026. What distinguishes his approach is a commitment to rooting each fair in its local cultural and market ecosystem, creating distinct identities that feel both globally connected and regionally grounded. Art Basel Paris has quickly established itself as a must-attend European event, while Art Basel Qatar aims to tap into the Gulf’s accelerating creative and economic transformation.

Now deep in preparations for the Qatar debut, De Bellis is applying a proven balance of curatorial rigor and industry savvy, building strategic alliances with regional players such as Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+, while putting acclaimed Egyptian artist Wael Shawky in the driver’s seat as artistic director—a move that underscores the fair’s intent to connect institutional ambition with local voices. Beyond the fairs themselves, De Bellis has also strengthened Art Basel’s role as a thought leader within the art world, introducing the Art Basel Awards in 2025 to honor organizations and individuals driving innovation. Under his leadership, the brand has evolved from a marketplace into a global platform for dialogue, vision and cultural exchange.

Michael Bloomberg

• Bloomberg Philanthropies | Founder

Michael Bloomberg isn’t just a philanthropist—he’s the top philanthropist in the U.S., with a record of supporting art initiatives with a focus on urban renewal and access. (He reportedly gave $3.7 billion last year, putting him at the top of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest Philanthropy 50 report.) His foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, partners with more than 700 cultural organizations worldwide, and through his donations, the former mayor of New York City has built a legacy of supporting small, medium and large organizations and initiatives—particularly in urban environments. The annual $100,000 Asphalt Art Grants transform streets and public spaces with artworks designed not only to activate underutilized areas but also to enhance street safety. Then there are the $1 million Public Art Challenge grants, which fund projects that address civic challenges like health equity, climate resilience and urban revitalization through the installation of artworks.

“The arts have always been at the center of movements for change,” Bloomberg tells Observer. “Today, they can play a role in spurring progress in the fight against climate change. Artists are drawing attention to the problem in powerful ways that encourage people to take action.”

In addition to doubling down on public art as a lever for urban change in the U.S., Bloomberg has a reputation for directly and indirectly supporting culture around the world. He’s chairman of the Serpentine Board and opened the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE. This year, he made the largest private donation ever recorded to the London Museum—a £20 million contribution plus a donation of 14,000 Roman artifacts uncovered during the construction of the Bloomberg European headquarters in London. On the accessibility side, the Bloomberg Connects app offers free digital guides to hundreds of museums, galleries, sculpture parks, gardens and other cultural institutions around the world. “The more we do to support both arts and arts organizations, the more we can capitalize on their potential to drive progress,” Bloomberg says. Ultimately, the scale and scope of Bloomberg’s giving affords him significant influence over the institutions, artists and stories that will be funded and amplified.

Bonnie Brennan

• Christie’s | CEO

Auction veteran Bonnie Brennan took the helm as CEO of Christie’s in early 2025, marking one of the year’s most closely watched leadership transitions in the art world. Formerly head of Americas—where she drove nearly half of the auction house’s global sales—Brennan now oversees an operation that brought in $2.1 billion in auction revenue in just the first half of 2025. Seven of the ten highest-priced artworks sold globally during that period went through Christie’s under her leadership, including Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922) and Canaletto’s Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day. Her ascent signals both continuity and evolution at a firm balancing tradition with transformation.

Brennan has made it clear she intends to broaden Christie’s reach, engaging younger and more diverse buyers while keeping a steady hand amid market headwinds. “We are deepening our connectivity in these growth markets—listening closely, partnering locally, and ensuring we are part of the cultural dialogue taking place across every continent,” Brennan tells Observer. “This widening landscape of creativity and collecting represents one of the most exciting opportunities in the art market today.” From exploring A.I. applications to rethinking the global sales calendar to committing to an ethos of sustainability, Brennan’s leadership reflects a pragmatic understanding of where the auction world is heading and a determination to keep Christie’s leading the charge. “We see ourselves as an important part of helping to ensure that growth in the art world happens with purpose, integrity and inclusion.”

Matthew Brown

• Matthew Brown Gallery | Founder

Matthew Brown was just 23 when he opened his first gallery in Hollywood in 2019. Five years later, he has two spaces in Los Angeles and opened a location in New York in 2024, defying both the COVID slowdown and a recent trend of gallery closures. Brown learned the ropes working simultaneously for mega blue-chip powerhouse Gagosian and experimental gallery Hannah Hoffman (soon to be Hannah Donahue). He was then unofficially mentored by groundbreaking dealer/curator Jeffrey Deitch, who provided guidance as Brown worked to set up his own space and build his niche (L.A. artists who were not showing in L.A.). Brown’s roster has expanded to more than 20 artists, including painter Carroll Dunham, whose drawing retrospective will open at the Art Institute of Chicago in January 2026. Early next year, he’s moving the Los Angeles gallery to a new space that he’ll inaugurate with an exhibition of works by Mimi Lauter, who he says he’s “long admired.”

Brown’s fast rise in art world circles may come down to his willingness to approach anyone with an ask (he approached Deitch at a fair), but there’s no denying that he has reshaped market dynamics by connecting Gen Z and Millennial collectors with artists on an upward trajectory, nurturing both a younger generation of collectors and platforming emerging artists without succumbing to speculative demand. “The new generation of collectors is more fluid: they’re digitally native, more global and often less tied to one genre, medium or even art historical period,” he tells Observer. “Their approach is intuitive, more lateral.” His artists have been shown by LACMA, the FLAG Art Foundation and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Young he may be, but by all accounts, his approach is decidedly old-school: focus on the artist, and visibility and valuation will follow. 

Guillaume Cerutti

• Pinault Collection | President
• Christie’s | Chairman of the Board

Guillaume Cerutti stepped down as CEO of Christie’s in 2025, handing the reins to Bonnie Brennan after a transformative tenure that redefined the auction house’s global footprint. Under his leadership, Christie’s delivered some of the most significant milestones in market history—from the record-breaking sale of Salvator Mundi (still the most expensive work of art ever sold) to the $1.6 billion auction of Paul Allen’s collection—and pushed the industry into the digital age through its pioneering collaboration with Beeple to sell the first purely digital NFT artwork offered by a major auction house. Cerutti proved that heritage and innovation could coexist, guiding Christie’s through the volatile years of online adoption and cementing its reputation as a leader in the next-gen art landscape.

Now chairman of the board for Christie’s and president of the Pinault Collection, Cerutti stands at the intersection of commerce, culture and policy. As such, his vision extends beyond the market: he recently proposed a €50 million European fund to enable joint acquisitions among museums that could foster cross-border partnerships and shared cultural stewardship. The initiative reflects a pragmatic solution to funding constraints and a bold reimagining of how institutions and private collections can work together—something he sees as increasingly necessary. “In a more fractured and brutal environment, the art world has a vital role to play: as a refuge, as a space for dialogue and as a provider of meaning,” he tells Observer. ”At the same time, other events, such as the theft at the Louvre, have reminded us of the vulnerability of these spaces. All players in the art world face this dual challenge: they are more relevant than ever, but also more exposed.” Collaboration, as modeled by Cerutti, could offer protection.

Felipe Dmab, Pedro Mendes & Matthew Wood

• Mendes Wood DM | Founding Partners

Pedro Mendes (who is from Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Matthew Wood (a New Hampshire native) were onto something when they established their first artist residency in rural Brazil and their gallery 15 years ago. The idea germinated from their time studying in Paris, seeing that Brazilian artists struggled to be included in top galleries and institutions. “There was never a business plan,” Mendes said in an interview. “It was 100 percent intuitive, it was instinctual.” Their initial address was an auspicious one, next door to Felipe Dmab’s early concept gallery, and so fate gave us the visionary trio known for moves like championing living Afro-Brazilian artists on the global art stage for the first time—including self-taught Sônia Gomes, who a year after joining the Mendes Wood DM roster was included in the 2015 Venice Biennale and today has works in major institutional collections. They capitalize on their cultural differences and diffuse connections when demonstrating that Brazilian art has the potential to reach international markets and institutions, but also to shape intellectual debates and conversations. 

The trio has been the driving force in many cutting-edge conversations taking place in the art world around decoloniality, trans-Atlantic connections, ecology and social justice. Mendes Wood DM is now a multi-city network of galleries with operations in São Paulo, Brussels, Paris and New York and regularly brings work by artists from its roster to the major fairs—including Art Basel Hong Kong—strengthening cross-continental sales of work by Brazilian artists like Solange Pessoa and Rubem Valentim.

Ari Emanuel

• MARI | Founder & Principal Investor

Ari Emanuel is never far from the spotlight thanks to a series of major industry moves. The Hollywood power broker made headlines last May with his personal acquisition of the Frieze art fair and media group from Endeavor—a $200 million deal that cements his influence in the arts and puts Frieze’s global fair portfolio (New York, Los Angeles, London and Seoul along with EXPO Chicago, The Armory Show, Frieze magazine and the No.9 Cork Street gallery in London) under the control of his new holding company, MARI. Rather than a shake-up, the move signals long-term stability: Frieze’s senior leadership remains in place, and Emanuel, who previously helped drive the brand’s expansion, appears intent on strategic growth rather than reinvention. To wit, the recent announcements of Frieze House Seoul (a No.9 Cork Street analog) and the fair’s Gulf play, Frieze Abu Dhabi.

For Emanuel, Frieze is both a business and a passion project. His background steering Endeavor/WME’s entertainment empire—including global event platforms like UFC and WWE—makes the acquisition part of a larger play in the live experience economy, where art fairs, fashion and entertainment increasingly intersect. “Frieze has always been a source of inspiration for me—both professionally and personally,” Emanuel said in a statement. While talk of art fair fatigue lingers, Frieze remains a global brand synonymous with prestige and cultural cachet. Under Emanuel’s watch, it’s poised not just to endure but to expand its reach, merging art-world sophistication with the scale and polish of a seasoned entertainment executive.

Vanessa Fusco

• Christie’s | International Director, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art

As the story goes, Vanessa Fusco was on track for a PhD in art history before realizing she missed the pulse of the auction floor—so she returned to Christie’s, where she’s since become one of its sharpest operators. Now global head of the department for Impressionist and Modern Art, she advises clients on multimillion-dollar works by the greats of the 19th and 20th Centuries, handling masterpieces with the precision of someone who knows both art and market inside and out. As head of the department, she shapes how blue-chip lots are positioned, priced and ultimately placed in private collections. At the last marquee sales, she presented Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891)—a performance that reminded everyone why she’s one of the best in the business.

Her strategy blends connoisseurship with global reach. Peupliers was unveiled in Taipei, a calculated move that paid off: “Taipei, in particular, has really had strong interest in classic Impressionism,” Fusco told ARTnews. The work went on to sell for $43 million after fees, a new world record price for the series, surpassing estimates amid competitive regional bidding. Fusco was at the helm of running the inaugural 20th Century Evening sale, a format introduced in May 2021, which combines the best of impressionism, modern and postwar Art into one masterpiece sale. That auction included Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) (1932), which topped $100 million—the first painting to do so since 2019, and Fusco was on the telephone with the winning bidder. Ultimately, Fusco is orchestrating confidence in a market that still hinges on trust, taste and timing.

Lina Ghotmeh

• LG—A | Founder & Architect

Lina Ghotmeh is shaping some of the most high-profile art and architecture commissions of our time and changing how we engage with art in the process. In 2023, she designed London’s Serpentine Pavilion “À table,” a witty, design-forward structure that turned the act of breaking bread into an artistic and communal experience. Her international visibility has surged since then. She created the Bahrain Pavilion for the 2025 Osaka Expo and was tapped to lead three major cultural landmarks: the new Qatar Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Jadids’ Legacy Museum in Bukhara, Uzbekistan—housed in a restored 19th-century residence—and the sweeping redesign of the British Museum’s Western Range, which encompasses nearly a third of the London institution’s footprint. “It’s an invitation to reframe how we tell the story of humanity through art—decentering traditional hierarchies and embracing a more interconnected, equitable cultural landscape,” she tells Observer. “We are finally witnessing the rise of influential perspectives from historically underrepresented regions. This expansion of voices is not only reshaping who gets to speak but also how and where art is being shown.”

Projects like the AlUla Contemporary Arts Museum in Saudi Arabia “sit at the crossroads of this transformation—where local narratives meet global dialogues,” she says. Across continents, Ghotmeh’s projects share a distinctive ethos rooted in what she calls the “Archaeology of the Future”—an architectural philosophy that insists buildings must rise from the spirit of their place, history and environment rather than sit apart from them. This sensitivity to context infuses her work with cultural depth and visual clarity, producing spaces that both honor their surroundings and reimagine how art, architecture and heritage can exist in conversation. “I’m deeply interested in rethinking how we show art and in reaffirming its central role within society,” she adds. “I believe museums and cultural spaces should evolve into living environments.”

Brett Gorvy

• Lévy Gorvy Dayan | Co-Founder & Partner
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

In 2025, Brett Gorvy joined an elite group of seasoned industry experts to launch New Perspectives Art Partners, a new collaborative consultancy launched specifically to reshape the landscape of high-end art advisory. He brings extensive experience in auction house and gallery leadership to the table. Before stepping down as chairman and international head of Postwar and Contemporary Art at Christie’s to become a dealer, his department was the auction house’s highest-earning and, through it, he shaped the art market as well as art history by shifting the valuations of canonical contemporary works and artists (notable among them a Picasso for $179 million and a Modigliani for $170.4 million). His semi-recent venture, the blue-chip East 64th Street gallery Lévy Gorvy Dayan, of which he is a co-founder and partner, has mounted critically acclaimed exhibitions of artists including Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter. 

“In the last five years, there has been an explosion of interest internationally in young contemporary artists, especially female artists and artists of color,” Gorvy tells Observer. This market has become very challenging, especially with the difficulties in Asia. Asian collectors have been responsible for much of this boom. As advisers, there is a need for greater scrutiny of younger markets and a focus less on pure financial return than greater curatorial focus.”

Gorvy, an art world heavyweight (and Instagram whiz with 164,000 followers), is now focused on turning New Perspectives Art Partners into a top-tier advisory service for top-of-market collectors navigating the current market challenges. “We’re in a market that’s shifting in real time and it’s happening in complex, layered ways,” he told Observer, certain that the McKinsey-like dream team of which he is part will be able to reshape the landscape of high-end art advisory in 2026 and beyond. “We aim to act like a management consultancy coming in to assess a project,” added Gorvy, whose in-depth knowledge of modern, contemporary and U.S. markets will no doubt set new standards in advisory services.

Michael Govan

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) | CEO

Michael Govan has redefined Los Angeles as a global cultural capital and transformed LACMA into one of the world’s most forward-looking museums. Since taking the helm in 2006, he has overseen the acquisition of more than 35,000 artworks and artifacts, expanding the museum’s scope across continents and centuries while strengthening ties to Los Angeles’s own creative communities. Under his leadership, LACMA has deepened partnerships with organizations such as East West Bank and launched initiatives like rotating loans with the new Las Vegas Museum of Art, reinforcing its role as a connector between local and international audiences.

Now Govan is steering LACMA through its most ambitious transformation yet: the $725 million David Geffen Galleries refurbishment and expansion, set to debut next year. “We had a vision of creating something truly unique—rooted in our locality but with a global perspective. And we’re incredibly excited about what we’ve been able to achieve,” he told Observer this summer during a preview tour of the space. The reimagined galleries will abandon traditional divisions by geography or chronology, instead emphasizing cross-cultural exchange and dialogue—mirroring Los Angeles’s own mosaic identity. With its open, park-like design and new public gathering spaces, the project redefines what a 21st-century museum can be: accessible, interconnected and alive to the global conversations that art can spark.

Max Hollein

• Metropolitan Museum of Art | Director & CEO

Max Hollein is steering the Metropolitan Museum of Art through one of the most ambitious periods of change in its history. Since becoming director and CEO in 2023, his unified leadership has allowed him to guide the Met’s evolution with clarity and purpose—addressing head-on the complex issues of provenance, deaccessioning, cultural heritage and institutional inclusivity. Under his watch, the museum has strengthened its provenance research capacity with the appointment of Lucian Simmons and a dedicated team, signaling a deeper institutional commitment to transparency and accountability in the stewardship of its global collections.

Equally transformative is Hollein’s effort to reframe how the Met presents non-Western art. The reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing earlier this year marks a major step in that direction, with renovated galleries that reflect new scholarship on the arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania—bringing forward fresh curatorial perspectives and cross-cultural connections. “Together with our collaborative and community-based approach to curating these collections, the transformation of these galleries allows us to further advance the appreciation and contextualization of many of the world’s most significant cultures,” he told Observer. More rethinking is underway: a 15,000-square-foot suite dedicated to ancient art from Cyprus and West Asia will open in 2027, aiming to transcend outdated East-West divides, while the long-awaited Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art—slated for completion in 2030—will further redefine how the Met engages with the art of our own time.

Steve Ivy

• Heritage Auctions | Co-Founder & CEO

While other auction houses are grappling with double-digit declines in sales volume, Heritage Auctions continues to defy gravity. The firm reported $962 million in total sales through June 2025—its highest midyear figure ever—surpassing last year’s then-record $924 million. It ultimately closed 2024 at $1.86 billion in total sales. Now the world’s third-largest auction house, Heritage boasts nearly two million registered bidders across categories that span fine art, numismatics, jewelry, design, science and pop culture. Under CEO Steve Ivy, Heritage has broadened its reach by expanding into unconventional collectible markets and capturing the attention of first-time and younger buyers. The company has redefined the boundaries of art sales to include comic books, film storyboards, sports memorabilia and other cultural artifacts once considered peripheral to the fine art market. 

Behind this growth lies a radically transparent consignment and bidding model across its 50 departments—an approach that contrasts sharply with the opacity of its older rivals.
“Gen-Next and Millennial collectors have replaced their Baby Boomer parents as the most active participants in the auction market, and they are not as interested in $10 million and above contemporary artworks,” Ivy tells Observer. “They have a much stronger preference for transparency and lack of friction in their auction buying. Additionally, they have been turning to collectibles, and this has benefited Heritage tremendously. We were the first auction house to invest heavily in these sectors beginning in the early 2000s.” It’s a pragmatic formula built around steady innovation, disciplined risk and an eye for where new collectors actually live.

Tina Kim

• Tina Kim Gallery | Founder & Owner

Tina Kim keeps a foot on both shores of the Pacific. Born in South Korea and raised in California, she was destined to build bridges long before the “Korean wave” went global. After getting her start organizing exhibitions for the influential Kukje Gallery in Seoul, founded by her mother, she established her eponymous gallery in New York City in 2001. “I’ve always seen my work as a cultural bridge—initially bringing Korean art to a wider audience, and now expanding that to connect more diverse voices,” Kim tells Observer. “The art world today feels less centralized and more interconnected, and that’s exactly the kind of landscape I want to help build.”

Through her New York program, Kim has been instrumental in bringing Korean and Asian diasporic artists to international prominence. She has championed figures like Park Seo-Bo, Ha Chong-Hyun, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Pacita Abad and Lee ShinJa, placing their work within major institutional collections and critical discourse, while amplifying the global visibility of a new generation, including Mire Lee and Maia Ruth Lee. Kim is widely credited with introducing Dansaekhwa—the influential postwar Korean monochrome movement—to a global audience, organizing a landmark collateral exhibition at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and this year, publishing a major new volume of artist letters translated from Korean, thereby contributing critical primary documents to the study of modern Korean art.

As a member of Frieze Seoul’s selection committee, Kim has helped shape the fair’s growth and visibility within the region from inception. With a surging Asian market and growing U.S. demand, Kim remains at the forefront. “Seoul will only continue to grow as a cultural capital in Asia—next year will be particularly exciting with the Gwangju and Busan Biennales coinciding with Frieze Seoul,” Kim says. “What it will take now is genuine exchange: artists, curators and audiences engaging directly, across regions. The future of the art world will depend on connection, not hierarchy.”

Philomene Magers & Monika Sprüth

• Sprüth Magers | Founders

One of the few German galleries to establish a truly global presence, Sprüth Magers has infrastructure spanning Berlin, London, Los Angeles and New York. In March, Philomene Magers told Observer she sees its priorities “in a much wider global system.” While the gallery represents a long list of artists globally, it remains at least partially focused on groundbreaking German artists like Anne Imhof—who won a Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and more recently brought DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE to the Park Avenue Armory—and Andreas Gursky, who brought “New Works” to Gagosian Paris, had a solo show in the gallery’s New York space earlier this year, and just opened a show at White Cube Mason’s Yard in London. The band/art project Kraftwerk also has a long-standing, albeit not-quite-representational, relationship with Sprüth Magers. “It shows that iconic and important figures continue to emerge from this cultural background,” said Magers. It also shows that the gallery has been savvy and laser-focused on positioning German contemporary art, with a high level of curatorial commitment.

The “re-centering of artists,” Monika Sprüth tells Observer, has been the most transformative shift in the art world’s power dynamics over the last year. “What emerges is not merely a new market logic, but a new cultural syntax. The next chapter of the art world won’t be defined by exclusivity. I see this moment as an invitation to exchange between cultures, technologies, and generations of artists and collectors alike.”

During their four-plus decades in the business, the pair has developed a sharp knack for identifying talent, including the likes of Barbara Kruger, George Condo (who recently left Hauser & Wirth for joint representation by Sprüth Magers and Skarstedt) and Jenny Holzer, who are among a roster of more than 70 artists and estates—and staying ahead of the curve despite pressures at home, with Berlin’s place as a major artist hub waning in recent years. Magers summarized their quest for talent, an ethos that transcends short-term trends: “To reimagine what the art world could become may require new kinds of alliances between galleries, collectors and institutions that are all defined together. We should always be open to operating beyond the structures that have historically been in place.”

Julie Mehretu

• Artist | Marian Goodman Gallery

Can a major contemporary artist also become a meaningful patron? Julie Mehretu just proved it. When the Whitney Museum raised its admission price from $25 to $30 in 2023—another sign of the art world’s rising inaccessibility—Mehretu stepped in with a $2.25 million gift to fund the institution’s “Free 25 and Under” program. “If you’re waiting tables in New York like I used to, you can’t afford to go to a museum all the time,” she said. “But young artists need access to art.” Her act wasn’t about spectacle—it was about restoring one of the core promises of public institutions: access and equity. It was also a reminder that philanthropy doesn’t have to mean billion-dollar endowments; timing, intention and empathy can be just as transformative.

Mehretu’s gesture comes as her own career reaches new heights. Her acclaimed retrospective “Ensemble” at Palazzo Grassi coincided with the 2024 Venice Biennale, spanning 25 years of work, while this year’s “KAIROS / Hauntological Variations” in Germany marks her largest European survey yet, featuring more than 100 pieces. Her auction market remains robust, but her growing role as a philanthropist might become an equally enduring legacy—showing that influence in art isn’t just about the work you make, but the access you help others gain.

Emmanuel Perrotin

• Perrotin | Founder

Emmanuel Perrotin’s eponymous mega-gallery continues to chase global domination by expanding into prime global markets, but with a lean and measured approach to growth. Perrotin represents approximately 70 artists and collaborates with 30 others, including emerging and established mid-career artists, as well as estates. Currently, the gallery has a presence in nine cities worldwide, with bookstores in Paris, London, New York and a pop-up at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In 2025, Perrotin opened new galleries in London and Dubai and relocated its Hong Kong outpost to a different part of the city. Earlier this year, after two years of negotiations, Perrotin sold a majority stake in the gallery (51 percent) to private equity firm Colony Investment Management in a move he calls “a monumental decision for us and the first of this kind in the contemporary art world.” In doing so, he amplified the financialization of contemporary art, ushering in increased capital flows, accelerating global scaling and setting new market expectations in the U.S. and beyond.

At the same time, Perrotin hasn’t shied away from expansion or experimentation. “When I started my gallery in Paris in 1990, I had a mission to make more people interested in contemporary art,” he tells Observer. “To do this, I had to find links with other disciplines—I was already connected to people who were in fashion and music, so I started these collaborations early on.” Joining its existing locations in Paris, New York City, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo are new spaces in Los Angeles (opened in 2024) and, in 2025, Paris, London and Dubai, where the gallerist recommitted to the Emirati city and its regional art scene with a primary-market venue. Now with private equity support, Perrotin told Bloomberg he would consider opening galleries in cities like Zurich, Bangkok or Istanbul. Or, he added, buying rivals—because consolidation among art galleries may be the future of the industry.

Alex Rotter

• Christie’s | Global President

Alex Rotter was appointed global president of Christie’s in May 2025—a natural progression for an executive who has spent the past decade redefining how the auction world operates. In his new role, he’s charged with shaping strategy for both auctions and private sales in concert with regional presidents and global chairs, all while continuing to serve as global chair of 20th- and 21st-century art. Few understand the nuances of market psychology and collector behavior quite like Rotter, whose tenure has been marked by bold structural innovations and a willingness to rewrite the rulebook when convention no longer serves.

His decision in 2020 to collapse Christie’s traditional art categories—merging Impressionist, Modern, Postwar and Contemporary art under a single “20/21” banner—was initially radical but ultimately visionary. It acknowledged a collector base less bound by chronology and more attuned to cross-era dialogues, streamlining consignment strategies and strengthening Christie’s market dominance. When the pandemic upended live auctions, Rotter adapted again, introducing the relay auction: a hybrid, live-streamed event that seamlessly passed from city to city, transforming sales into global spectacles. He remains candid about market turbulence yet unflappable in the face of it—and consequently known for turning headwinds into opportunities.

Antwaun Sargent

• Gagosian | Director

Curator and writer Antwaun Sargent has been dubbed the “Art Star Maker” for his ability to not only celebrate Black creativity in art, fashion and design but also to leverage people and platforms to bring it market and institutional attention. “I still think the best way to encourage an art ecosystem I believe in is to create it,” Sargent tells Observer. Since his appointment to director at Gagosian in 2021, the 30-something has rapidly become a high-profile tastemaker, but he was shaping discourse long before joining the mega-gallery, with bylines in the New York Times, the New Yorker and scores of art publications, where he questioned the relationship between art institutions and Black artists. His book credits include The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, which he wrote, and Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists, which he edited. 

Both his curation and his commentary have been seminal in reshaping conversations, collector taste and boosting the visibility of historically underrepresented Black contemporary artists. His debut show with Gagosian, “Social Works,” explored the relationship between the physical spaces we engage with and Black social practice. He was behind Virgil Abloh’s “Figures of Speech” at the Brooklyn Museum and “Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick,” the institution’s first solo show dedicated to a Black artist. These are just a few of the 30-plus critically acclaimed and commercially successful shows he’s curated, and yet his approach is deceptively simple: “My only strategy is to believe in artists, which is to say I do whatever possible to make their visions a reality.” Lauren Halsey, Rick Lowe, Tyler Mitchell, Cy Gavin and Derrick Adams are among those artists—they make great work, Sargent asserts, and his job is to support them. “The evolution of the art world and its centers of power have been greatly exaggerated,” he adds. “The only thing I’m interested in is putting more power in the hands of artists.”

Read Our Full Q&A With Antwaun Sargent

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

• Qatar Museums | Chairperson

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has become the current that moves the Gulf’s entire cultural tide. As chairperson of Qatar Museums, she has not only cemented Qatar’s position on the global art map but ensured it will stay there for decades to come. With access to both immense family wealth and a sharp curatorial instinct, she recently helped broker the landmark Art Basel Qatar, set to debut in February 2026 through a partnership between Art Basel, Qatar Sports Investments and QC+. She also championed the launch of the new Qatar Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which debuted at this year’s architecture edition—a clear signal that her ambitions extend well beyond Doha.

This outward expansion follows years of building a formidable cultural foundation at home—consolidating acquisitions, infrastructure and institutional strategy while elevating Qatar’s artistic profile across the region. Her vision has translated into major public art initiatives, including Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East, and into making Qatar a first-choice destination for artists, curators and global institutions alike. Under her leadership, dynamic platforms such as Mathaf (Arab Museum of Modern Art), the Lusail Museum, the Art Mill Museum (opening in 2030) and the Fire Station have flourished, alongside high-profile exhibitions such as “LATINOAMERICANO | Modern and Contemporary Art from the Malba and Eduardo F. Costantini Collections” and “Seeing Is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gérôme.”

Martin Wilson

• Phillips | CEO

Art lawyer Martin Wilson rose to CEO of Phillips in early 2025, stepping into the role after Ed Dolman left to launch New Perspectives Art Partners. A seasoned art and auction veteran, Wilson was brought in during a turbulent market moment—an era of softening demand and growing regulatory scrutiny. Brought in as a “safe pair of hands,” he drew on his deep legal and compliance expertise (and the authority of being the author of Art Law and the Business of Art) to stabilize operations amid a 17.5 percent sales decline. His steady leadership has been defined by pragmatism and a measured confidence that Phillips will adapt rather than contract. “We’re seeing a real ‘taste transfer’ happening alongside the ‘great wealth transfer,’” Wilson tells Observer. “The challenge for the market is to anticipate and understand the expectations of these new collectors, both in terms of their taste but also how they prefer to engage with the art market.”

It is at inflection points like this, he says, that opportunities for innovation present themselves, and he’s already steering Phillips toward the future. He has appointed new heads for modern and contemporary art and private sales, while introducing a flexible premium structure designed to counter early bid hesitancy and soothe wary consignors. The new pre-auction bidding model allows early participants to benefit from reduced premiums while generating more authentic competition in the room. “We have a history of delivering positive results for our clients, as evidenced by our 90 percent sell-through rate this spring,” Wilson said this year. “Our aim now is to build on that by encouraging early engagement to generate spirited bidding and provide greater certainty for sellers.”

Read our Full Q&A With Martin Wilson

Patti Wong

• Patti Wong & Associates | Co-Founder
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

As one half of Patti Wong & Associates with Daryl Wickstrom, Patti Wong commands an unrivaled network across Asia, where the art market continues its ascent, powered by new institutions such as M+, where she now serves on the board. That appointment, along with her role as a founding partner of New Perspectives Art Partners alongside Brett Gorvy, Philip Hoffman and Ed and Alex Dolman, underscores her status as one of the region’s most influential cultural figures. 

“We foresee opportunities to build comprehensive advisory relationships with collectors and institutions in these regions, working with clients on long-term goals, legacy planning and collection dispersals that go beyond major collection sales at public auction—helping collections evolve in a way that can be passed down through generations or even transitioned into institutions,” Wong tells Observer. “It is about looking beyond the transaction and focusing on the bigger picture of what art legacy means and how art endures.”

From the outset of her career, Wong aimed to make Hong Kong a market force equal to New York and London—and she did. Over three decades at Sotheby’s, she transformed the city into a global art capital, introducing Asian collectors to Western postwar and contemporary art, elevating the international valuations of Asian artists, and overseeing record-breaking sales that established Hong Kong’s auctions as unmissable events on the global calendar. “We have always believed that understanding how different cultures collect, what motivates them and how they engage with art is key,” Wong says.

Following her 2023 collaboration with The Fine Art Group and her departure as International Chairman and Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Wong’s independent firm has quickly become a powerhouse in its own right. It has, she says, “generated a total transaction value for our clients in excess of $1 billion”—evidence that the Asian market remains active and resilient, even if it’s no longer operating at the inflated pace of its most frenzied years.

David Zwirner

• David Zwirner | Founder

Mega-dealer David Zwirner knows how to weather art market headwinds. He cancelled a massive expansion project in 2023—a swanky Renzo Piano-designed, 50,000-square-foot building on West 21st Street in Chelsea—only to rebound with an office on West 20th Street and an 18,000-square-foot gallery designed by Annabelle Selldorf on West 19th Street, which opened last May with a major solo show of work by Michael Armitage. Zwirner has demonstrated similar agility in his art-tech ventures, including the digital marketplace Platform, which he has reshuffled whenever needed to stay ahead of key blue-chip competitors, all of which have been in expansion mode in recent years. 

Zwirner’s fire-tested commercial operation remains as relevant as ever. His global network of galleries in New York, L.A., London, Hong Kong and Paris shapes consumer taste through bespoke programming and market experimentation. A prominent roster of estates, emerging artists and new talents drives high-end primary market sales. Most recently, he poached artist Yoshitomo Nara from Pace—the artist joins a robust roster that includes the estates of Donald Judd, Diane Arbus and Paul Klee and contemporary talents Gerhard Richter, Yayoi Kusama and Félix González‑Torres, among others. Likewise, he poached Alex Marshall (now a senior director) from Christie’s after elevating Ebony L. Haynes to global head of curatorial projects. State-of-the-art content production via David Zwirner Books, a line of prints and editions, and the podcast Dialogues diversifies Zwirner’s influence at a time when galleries everywhere are seeking to hook the attention of the growing (and much coveted) market of young collectors.