ArtReview has released its 2025 Power 100 list, ranking the most influential figures in the art world over the past year. Artists dominate the top ten, with Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama taking the first place for using his art profits to build institutions and community spaces in Tamale. Other top artists include Wael Shawky, Ho Tzu Nyen, Amy Sherald, Kerry James Marshall, Forensic Architecture, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Gulf royalty also feature prominently: Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani of Qatar ranks second, and Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi of Sharjah ranks third, reflecting the region's growing art-world influence. The list also includes academic Saidiya Hartman as a "thinker" in eighth place.
The 2025 Power 100 list highlights a significant shift in the art world's power dynamics, with artists increasingly creating their own infrastructure and the Arabian Gulf emerging as a new center of influence, while traditional art hubs in the US, Germany, and the UK face austerity and culture wars. The ranking underscores a move away from purely economic or aesthetic measures toward a complex social system of relationships shaping contemporary art. This matters because it signals a decentralization of the art world, where artists and non-Western regions are gaining greater agency and visibility, challenging established institutional models.