The 2023 Discovery List
The ArtDesk 100
A to Z, ArtDesk presents the next generation of society’s leading creatives.
In honor of ArtDesk’s tenth anniversary in 2023, we have chosen our favorite creators, thinkers, and voices leading new frontiers in art, performance, and thought. These creative discoverers are all early- to mid-career at 45 years old and younger. Each is exciting to watch and learn from, and every one has the demonstrated bona fides to merit inclusion on the inaugural ArtDesk 100. Congratulations!
A
Hanif Abdurraqib
Writer
b. 1983, Columbus, Ohio
Abdurraqib writes poetry, essays, and cultural critique. A Little Devil in America, his collection of essays, won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize.
Kyle Abraham
Choreographer
b. 1977, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Abraham’s journey to the stage began with Civic Light Opera Academy. He won a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship and formed his company A.I.M in 2006.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Visual Artist
b. 1983, Enugu, Nigeria
Based in Los Angeles. In 2017, Crosby won a MacArthur Fellowship for her layered compositions “visualizing the complexities of globalization and transnational identity.”
Ian Alteveer
Curator
b. 1977, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Associate curator in the Met’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Alteveer—a Stanford and NYU grad—organized the first site-specific commissions for the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden.
Will Arbery
Playwright
b. 1989, Nashua, New Hampshire
A playwright and filmmaker, his productions include Corsicana and Heroes of the Fourth Turning, with TV writing credits on Succession. Arbery has an upcoming series on Hulu.
Arca
Musician
b. 1989, Caracas, Venezuela
An experimental musician and sound artist who has been pushing boundaries since 2012. Arca’s album Kick II is up for best alternative music album at this year’s Latin Grammy Awards.
Lucas Arruda
Visual Artist
b. 1983, São Paolo, Brazil
Arruda is known for meditative paintings of imagined locales. “Viewers automatically register my format as a landscape, although none of the images can be traced to a geographic location,” he says.
Ari Aster
Filmmaker
b. 1986, New York, New York
Aster is a director, screenwriter, and producer of contemporary art-house horror movies like Hereditary and Midsommar. The filmmaker is currently working on his third feature, Disappointment Blvd.
Tauba Auerbach
Visual Artist
b. 1981, San Francisco, California
This Bay Area artist works across media, including painting, glass sculpture, video, and musical-instrument design, exploring perceptions of structure and pattern. Auerbach’s work has been exhibited globally, from MoMA to the Centre Pompidou.
B
Annie Baker
Playwright
b. 1981, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright behind works like The Flick, The Aliens, and The Antipodes, Baker won a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship for “mining the minutiae of how we speak, act, and relate to one another.”
Josh Balk
Advocate
b. 1979, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania
Balk, an animal wellbeing advocate and entrepreneur from Pennsylvania, currently serves as vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States.
Aran Bell
Dancer
b. 1998, Bethesda, Maryland
Bell became a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre three years ago at age twenty-one. He was one of six competitors from the Youth America Grand Prix featured in the 2011 documentary First Position.
Sarah Benson
Director
b. 1978, United Kingdom
Benson is an experimental stage director in New York City. Her 2019 production of Fairview won a Pulitzer Prize for best play, and Benson was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her direction.
Mark Billy
Opera Singer
b. 1989, Antlers, Oklahoma
Choctaw baritone Billy has been involved in the creation of Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s Shell Shaker, the first opera written in a Native American language. He studied at the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University.
Emily Bode
Designer
b. 1989, Atlanta, Georgia
Bode is a fashion designer whose menswear collection features items cut exclusively from antique textiles. In 2017, she became the first woman designer to show at New York Fashion Week: Men’s.
Vicky Bond
Advocate
b. 1983, Ormskirk, United Kingdom
Bond is a veterinarian and animal-welfare advocate who earlier this year became the first woman to lead The Humane League, a nonprofit dedicated to ending animal abuse in the food system.
Camille A. Brown
Choreographer
b. 1979, Queens, New York
A multi-hyphenate talent, Brown made history as the first Black artist to direct a main-stage Metropolitan Opera production, and the first Black woman since 1955 to direct and choreograph a Broadway play.
Rena Butler
Choreographer
b. 1989, Chicago, Illinois
Butler has choreographed works for BalletX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Charlotte Ballet, and more. She was the 2019 recipient of the Princess Grace Award, given to “support extraordinary emerging artists in theater, dance and film.”
C
Jordan Casteel
Visual Artist
b. 1989, Denver, Colorado
Casteel is a visual artist known for intimate and vibrant portraiture. She won a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship for “capturing everyday encounters with people and places in works that invite recognition of our shared humanity.”
Jeff Chanchaleune
Chef
b. 1985, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Chanchaleune is a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist and owner of Ma Der Lao and Gorō Ramen in Oklahoma City. The New York Times calls him “one in a class of Lao American chefs boldly asserting their identity through food.”
Rachel Chavkin
Director
b. 1980, Washington, DC
Chavkin is known for musicals like Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 and Hadestown—the latter of which won the Tony Award for best direction of a musical in 2019.
Joshua Cohen
Writer
b. 1980, Somers Point, New Jersey
Cohen is known for works like Witz, Book of Numbers and Moving Kings. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2022 novel, The Netanyahus.
Dan Colen
Visual Artist
b. 1979, Leonia, New Jersey
Colen’s work has been exhibited in institutional venues and held in collections around the world. In 2011 he founded Sky High Farm, a nonprofit farm dedicated to reducing food insecurity.
D
Eric Dietz
Musician
b. 1991
Dietz is a composer, lyricist, and librettist behind musicals like Delirious Berlin, Luna and the Gold River Docks, and All the Walls. Upcoming work includes an original score for Dawned by Robert Mark Dance.
Denys Drozdyuk
Dancer
b. 1985, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Drozdyuk is a ballroom dancer who performs with duet partner Antonina Skobina. The pair were Green Box artists in residence in 2021 and won the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award for choreography in 2022.
E
Robert Eggers
Filmmaker
b. 1983, Lee, New Hampshire
Eggers is the writer-director of historical horror films like The Witch and The Lighthouse, and the 2022 Viking action thriller The Northman. The New York City–based filmmaker is currently adapting the 1922 silent film Nosferatu.
Alexander Ekman
Choreographer
b. 1984, Stockholm, Sweden
Ekman has worked with Royal Swedish Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Goteborg Ballet, Iceland Dance Company, nearly fifty companies in all.
Buck Ellison
Visual Artist
b. 1987, San Francisco, California
Ellison’s large-format photographs interrogate American wealth and whiteness. Based in Los Angeles, his work has shown at Balice Hertling in Paris, Carl Kostyàl in Sweden, and the Sunday Painter in London.
Gabriel Hainer Evansohn
Designer
b. 1982, New York, New York
Evansohn co-conceived the musical KPOP that transferred in 2022 to Broadway. Other productions include Empire Travel Agency, which took audiences on exploratory journeys through Manhattan.
F
Michael Fabiano
Opera Singer
b. 1984, Montclair, New Jersey
Fabiano is a tenor who has performed with the San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, and more. He is a co-founder of ArtSmart, a nonprofit providing tuition-free music instruction to under-served students.
Silas Farley
Choreographer
b. 1994, Charlotte, North Carolina
After retiring from the New York City Ballet in 2020 at the age of twenty-six, Farley shifted from performance to choreography. He was named dean of Colburn School’s Trudl Zipper Dance Institute in Los Angeles in 2021.
Christaan Felber
Visual Artist
b. 1985, Thousand Oaks, California
Felber got his break photographing the Vaccines on tour. He is based in Brooklyn and his dynamic portraiture has appeared in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Other high-profile clients have included The North Face and Nike.
Nathan Fielder
Filmmaker
b. 1983, Vancouver, Canada
Canadian comedian Fielder has carved out a distinctly uncomfortable brand of humor with the Comedy Central series Nathan for You (2013–17) and the ongoing HBO docu-comedy series The Rehearsal (2022). His philanthropy has confronted Holocaust denial.
Louis Fratino
Visual Artist
b. 1993, Annapolis, Maryland
Paintings by the Brooklyn-based Fratino vividly reference memory and art history. He is a BFA alumnus of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and his first institutional solo show was in 2021 at the Des Moines Art Center.
Jovani Furlan
Dancer
b. 1994, Joinville, Brazil
Promoted to New York City Ballet principal in 2022, Furlan imbues his performances with a love of dance that began at age ten in Brazil’s Bolshoi Theater School. In 2022, he launched one of the first male-focused dancewear brands.
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Robert Glasper
Musician
b. 1978, Houston, Texas
A jazz pianist, Glasper instills a hip-hop flair in his melodic music. His Grammy-winning Black Radio album series released between 2012 and 2022 has redefined the genre by celebrating the breadth of Black music.
Sam Gold
Director
b. 1978, New York, New York
Winner of the 2015 Tony Award for best direction of a musical for Fun Home, Gold brings a stripped-down approach to both musicals and plays. This includes the 2022 Macbeth on Broadway starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga.
Bianca Graulau
Journalist
b. 1990, Hatillo, Puerto Rico
Graulau began her reporting career as an independent journalist and storyteller. Through TikTok and YouTube she documents issues facing Puerto Ricans, like her recent project with musical artist Bad Bunny for El Apagón.
Thomas Guggeis
Conductor
b. 1993, Dachau, Germany
Guggeis was only twenty-eight in 2021 when it was announced he would be the Frankfurt Opera’s next general music director. The German conductor had his breakout in 2018 when he stepped in to conduct Salome in Berlin.
H
Lauren Halsey
Visual Artist
b. 1987, Los Angeles, California
Halsey creates vibrant found-object-inspired art that honors her hometown. Her critically acclaimed 2022 solo show at David Kordansky Gallery will be followed by a 2023 installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alexander Haquia
Dancer
b. 2000, Whippany, New Jersey
Haquia graduated in 2022 from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program into an inaugural season with Ballet Hispánico. The New Jersey native began dancing at age fifteen and has worked with choreographers including Francesca Harper and Twyla Tharp.
Sterlin Harjo
Filmmaker
b. 1979, Holdenville, Oklahoma
Seminole Nation member Harjo’s Reservation Dogs series debuted in 2021 to acclaim for Native representation and storytelling. He studied film at the University of Oklahoma, releasing his first feature, Four Sheets to the Wind, in 2007.
Matthew Angelo Harrison
Visual Artist
b. 1989, Detroit, Michigan
Detroit-based Harrison draws on his experience in the automobile industry for work reflecting on labor, Black history, and technology. Recent exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel and MIT List Center feature 3D printing and objects captured in resin.
Cj Hendry
Visual Artist
b. 1988, Durban, South Africa
Hendry created an audience for her hyperrealistic drawings of ordinary objects on Instagram that has burgeoned into a major demand by collectors. Alongside numerous solo shows, in 2017 she partnered with fashion house Christian Louboutin.
Matthijs Herzberg
Designer
b. 1994, Friesland, The Netherlands
Herzberg is a New Orleans–based designer, typographer, and founder of Herzberg Design Co, “a one-man operation [focusing] on unconventional and exuberant work, but always with a sharp eye for detail, quality, and purpose.”
Sky Hopinka
Visual Artist
b. 1984, Ferndale, Washington
Hopinka’s multifaceted work centers Indigenous perspectives in film and video, particularly related to language and the land. In addition to creating art, he is a teacher of the Chinuk Wawa language. In 2022 he received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
J
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Playwright
b. 1984, Washington, DC
Named a 2016 MacArthur fellow for his work that grapples with race, class, and identity, Jacobs-Jenkins recently joined Yale’s faculty. His plays Gloria and Everybody were Pulitzer finalists while Appropriate and An Octoroon were honored with Obie Awards.
Mikko Järvenpää
Advocate
b. 1977, Finland
Järvenpää founded the nonprofit journalism organization Sentient Media to cover issues related to how people use animals. His diverse work in the technology industry has included serving as CEO of Infogram and product manager and VP at Prezi.
Jamian Juliano-Villani
Visual Artist
b. 1987, Tewksbury, New Jersey
Juliano-Villani references print media and art history in vivid works with recent exhibitions including the 2022 Venice Biennale. The raucous O’Flaherty’s gallery she co-opened in 2021 has become an art scene unto itself.
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Raja Feather Kelly
Choreographer
b. 1988, Fort Hood, Texas
Kelly’s choreography for the 2022 Tony-winning A Strange Loop on Broadway manifests the interior thoughts of the protagonist, the latest in his boundary-defying work for experimental theater. He is the artistic director of New Brooklyn Theatre.
Colin King
Designer
b. 1988, Columbus, Ohio
King is a designer and interior stylist who creates self-described “compositions, images, and objects that explore scale, balance, and restraint.” He is a regular contributing stylist to Architectural Digest, T Magazine, Elle Decor, and more.
L
Deana Lawson
Visual Artist
b. 1979, Rochester, NY
Lawson has exhibited her intimate portraits of Black people in highly posed scenes at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum. She won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2020.
Lex Liang
Designer
b. 1982, Orange, California
From innovative theatrical shows to major live events, Liang’s scenic and costume designs can be seen across the world. He founded LDC Design in 2010.
Karyn Lyons
Visual Artist
b. 1981, New York, New York
Lyons ruminates on teenage life with references to nineteenth-century portraiture and film. Her previous work in the fashion industry informs the sitters’ detailed dress, as seen in her recent solo show at Turn Gallery.
M
Angie Mar
Chef
b. 1982, Seattle, Washington
Mar’s Les Trois Chevaux opened in New York City in 2021, following up on her game-and-meat focus at the Beatrice Inn with cuisine-mixing influences from France and her Chinese heritage. Michelin recently added Les Trois Chevaux to its New York guide.
Rafael Mason
Philanthropist
b. 1979, Memphis, Tennessee
After over a decade of leadership at American Express, Mason became the operating partner at Bain Capital in 2022. The private investment firm has been a pioneer in its consulting-based approach to private-equity investing.
Skye Mattox
Dancer
b. 1992, Danville, New Hampshire
Mattox’s dynamic dancing has captivated in Broadway roles in the Tony-nominated Carousel, West Side Story, and On the Town. She is a choreographer and a teacher, leading programs on jazz and theater techniques.
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Visual Artist
b. 1981, Blytheville, Arkansas
McClodden is a visual artist and filmmaker who uses a range of media and meticulous research to examine issues of the African diaspora. She is based in Philadelphia, and her recent exhibitions include an award-winning installation at the 2019 Whitney Biennial.
Charlotte McConaghy
Writer
b. 1988, Darwin, Australia
McConaghy has published more than twenty-three books. Migrations (2020) has been published in more than twenty languages and will be adapted into a movie. Her latest novel, Once There Were Wolves, is a mystery about the reintroduction of wolves to the Scottish Highlands.
Danielle McKinney
Visual Artist
b. 1981, Montgomery, Alabama
McKinney is featured in the exhibition When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied art at the Atlanta College of Art and the Parsons School of Design.
Rhett McLaughlin
Filmmaker
b. 1977, Macon, Georgia
Known for his YouTube appearances, McLaughlin has produced comedy shows like Good Mythical Morning with his internet partner Link Neal. This year, he made his musical debut with a folk album under music moniker James and the Shame.
Ottessa Moshfegh
Writer
b. 1981, Boston, Massachusetts
Winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for her debut novel, Eileen, in 2015, Moshfegh’s second book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), was also wildly popular. Actress Margot Robbie bought the rights for its film adaptation.
Nico Muhly
Musician
b. 1981, Randolph, Vermont
A Juilliard-trained contemporary music composer and arranger, Muhly has worked and recorded with musicians ranging from Philip Glass to Sufjan Stevens. He has had two operas commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera.
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Rebecca Nagle
Journalist
b. 1991, Joplin, Missouri
Nagle is a writer and Cherokee Nation citizen whose This Land podcast on Native land rights won the 2020 American Mosaic Journalism Prize. She is a co-founder of FORCE, an artist-led organization combating rape culture.
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Natalia Osipova
Dancer
b. 1986, Moscow, Russia
Osipova joined the Bolshoi Ballet at age eighteen and is a principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet in London. The New York premiere of her program, Force of Nature, will open in January 2023.
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Hilary Pecis
Visual Artist
b. 1979, Redding, California
Pecis studied at the California College of Arts in Oakland and is known for her paintings of detailed yet calming interiors. She opens a show of new work at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles in March 2023.
Justin Peck
Dancer
b. 1987, Washington, DC
Peck is a Tony-winning choreographer, director, filmmaker, and dancer. He was appointed the acting resident choreographer of the New York City Ballet and has choreographed major motion pictures, including West Side Story (2021).
Tiler Peck
Dancer
b. 1989, Bakersfield, California
Peck entered the esteemed School of American Ballet at age twelve and is now a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. She has also danced in the film Donnie Darko and television series Tiny Pretty Things.
David Peña-Guzmán
Philosopher
b. 1986, Guadalajara, Mexico
Peña-Guzmán specializes in critical animal studies, the history and philosophy of science, and contemporary European philosophy. He is the author of When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness (2022) and cohosts the Overthink podcast.
James Perkins
Visual Artist
b. 1978, Hot Springs, Arkansas
An artist whose work spans sculpture, painting, photography, film, and land art installations, Perkins exhibited at Metro Pictures in New York City in 2018. He received a BA from Yale University and a master’s degree from the School of Visual Arts.
Renata Petersen
Visual Artist
b. 1993, Guadalajara, Mexico
Petersen uses blown glass and ceramics to address themes in religion, urban myths, sexuality, and gender roles. Dark humor in her works creates a perfect balance of high and low culture.
Maria Popova
Writer
b. 1984, Sofia, Bulgaria
In 2006, Popova began her influential blog Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian), and she has since written for publications like The Atlantic and The Huffington Post. Her 2019 book, Figuring, won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Steven Prohira
Physicist
b. 1987, Denver, Colorado
Prohira was named a 2022 MacArthur fellow for his work advancing the studies of cosmic rays and ultra-high energy subatomic particles. He recently developed the Radar Echo Telescope, forging brand-new radar technology methods.
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Megha Rajagopalan
Journalist
b. 1992, Montgomery County, Maryland
Rajagopalan won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting with her stories identifying the mass detention of Muslim Uighurs by the Chinese government. She’s reported from twenty-three different countries in Asia and the Middle East, and currently works for BuzzFeed News.
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Byron Sanders
Advocate
b. 1983, Dallas, Texas
An award-winning education-equity advocate whose background spans finance, education, philanthropy, and entrepreneurialism, Sanders is president and CEO of Big Thought, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the opportunity gap.
Antwaun Sargent
Curator
b. 1989, Chicago, Illinois
Sargent was appointed as a Gagosian director and curator in early 2022. His writings appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vice, and elsewhere. Sargent is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion.
Siddhartha V. Shah
Curator
b. 1978, Chicago, Illinois
Shah is the director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. He has degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University and specializes in Hindu and Buddhist art from the Kathmandu Valley.
Nadine Sierra
Opera Singer
b. 1988, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The youngest person to win the Marilyn Horne Foundation vocal competition, Sierra has since gained international renown for her interpretation of Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
Antonina Skobina
Dancer
b. 1990, Mariupol, Ukraine
Skobina is a two-time US ballroom dance champion alongside her permanent dance partner, Denys Drozdyuk. In 2022, they became the first ballroom duet dancers to win the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award in choreography.
Kate Soper
Musician
b. 1981, Ann Arbor, Michigan
A composer and vocalist, Soper was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in music for her chamber opera, Ipsa Dixit. She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Steph Speirs
Entrepreneur
b. 1985, Honolulu, Hawaii
Speirs is the co-founder and CEO of Solstice, a company aiming to provide American households with solar-powered energy. She has global community-building experience and studied at Yale and Princeton.
Josh Sperling
Visual Artist
b. 1984, Oneonta, New York
Sperling revisits the language of minimalism through repeating forms and shaped canvases. He was featured in the 2021 Nassima Landau Art Foundation exhibition The Show Will Go On in Tel Aviv.
Ryan Steele
Actor
b. 1990, Walled Lake, Michigan
Steele has appeared extensively on Broadway, film, and television, most memorably as Specs in the 2012 musical Newsies and as the aspiring ballet dancer Chip Daniel in the 2013 movie Five Dances.
Lily Stockman
Visual Artist
b. 1982, Providence, Rhode Island
Stockman is an abstract painter selected to participate in the exhibition 13 Women at the Orange County Museum of Art. Her next solo show will be in March 2023 at Massimo de Carlo in London.
Tavares Strachan
Visual Artist
b. 1979, Nassau, the Bahamas
Strachan, a conceptual artist, won a Tiffany Foundation grant in 2007 and a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2022. He is represented by the Marian Goodman Gallery.
Ali Stroker
Actor
b. 1987, Ridgewood, New Jersey
The first wheelchair-using actor on Broadway and the first to be nominated for and win a Tony Award, Stroker took home the prize for best featured actress in a musical in 2019 for her role as Ado Annie in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
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Honor Titus
Visual Artist
b. 1989, Brooklyn, New York
A Los Angeles–based painter and draftsman, Titus began his career as an assistant to artist Raymond Pettibon. The former punk-band frontman quickly became known internationally for his flat, colorful, figurative works.
Faye Toogood
Designer
b. 1977, Rutland, England
Toogood is one of the most prominent designers today. Thirteen public works from her Assemblage furniture series were commissioned by the Qatar Museum in 2022 for the Qatar National Theatre.
Melissa Toogood
Dancer
b. Sydney, Australia
Toogood is a dancer and rehearsal director for the esteemed Pam Tanowitz Dance Company. She won a 2015 Bessie Award for dance and was named a Merce Cunningham fellow in 2013 and 2015.
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Lorenzo Viotti
Conductor
b. 1990, Lausanne, Switzerland
The music director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal, Viotti has won several major conducting competitions and received the “Newcomer of the Year” award at the International Opera Awards in London in 2017.
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Adrienne Warren
Actor
b. 1987, Hampton Roads, Virginia
Warren made her Broadway debut in the 2012 musical Bring It On. In 2020, she won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the West End production of Tina.
Kamasi Washington
Musician
b. 1981, Los Angeles, California
A Grammy-nominated saxophonist, bandleader, and composer known for genre-scrambling works of jazz fusion like The Epic and Heaven and Earth, Washington has performed with diverse collaborators, from Herbie Hancock to Run the Jewels.
Ti West
Filmmaker
b. 1980, Wilmington, Delaware
West made his name with horror films such as The House of the Devil (2009) and The Sacrament (2013). This year, he released the A24-produced psychological slasher film X and its prequel, Pearl.
Cosmo Whyte
Visual Artist
b. 1982, St. Andrew, Jamaica
Whyte’s practice spans drawing, performance, and sculpture. His work most recently has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Somerset House in London, and the Jamaica Biennial.
Kandis Williams
Visual Artist
b. 1985, Baltimore, Maryland
Williams’ transdisciplinary art practice encompasses collage, sculpture, film, and performance. She is a co-founder of Cassandra Press, an artist-run platform for publishing, education, and activism.
Jordan Wolfson
Visual Artist
b. 1980, New York, New York
Wolfson’s oeuvre, called “unsettling,” spans video, film, installations, and virtual reality. Most recently his work appeared at the Brant Foundation in New York, Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, and Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Italy.
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David Yeager
Psychologist
b. 1981
A researcher and associate professor of developmental psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, Yeager concentrates on how better understanding adolescence can contribute to more positive educational, developmental, and social futures for youth.
Oscar Yi Hou
Visual Artist
b. 1988, Liverpool, England
Yi Hou became one of the youngest artists to exhibit solo at a major New York institution this year with East of sun, west of moon at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The exhibition explores Asian identity through figurative painting.
Flora Yukhnovich
Visual Artist
b. 1990, Norwich, England
Yukhnovich brings the rococo style of eighteenth-century artists like Tiepolo, Boucher, and Watteau into the twenty-first century through vibrant, large-scale paintings that marry figurative and abstract techniques.
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Irina Zavatski
Designer
b. 1977, Tajikistan
Zavatski’s love for automotive design was sparked on a trip to the Cleveland Institute of Art, where clay car models caught her eye. She’s now vice president of Chrysler design and has also designed for Saturn and Jeep.