Canada’s Top 10 Contemporary Artists
An Update for 2024
In March, I wrote a post about the top 100 Canadian contemporary artists. My list was based on the ranking provided by Artfacts.net, a contemporary art database that tracks artists’ reputations by documenting their exhibitions and awards. My list was drawn from 2022 Artfacts data, and I have not updated my list as Artfacts requires an expensive subscription to sort their list according to nationality.
Last month, a reader alerted me to a video that provides an update on this data. Julien Delagrange is the director of an on-line publication and artist’s service site, Contemporary Art Issue. As part of his project he produces short videos on contemporary art, often structured as a top ten list. This summer he posted Top 10 Most Important Canadian Contemporary Artists. Delagrange’s video, with its narrative text written by Sylvia Walker and images of the artists’ work, is a good review of Canada’s most internationally renowned artists.
His selection of artists was based on 2024 Artfacts data. This is what the top of the list looks like now:
Kapwani Kiwanga
Jeff Wall
Stan Douglas
Ed Burtynsky
Jon Rafman
Jeremy Shaw
Marcel Dzama
Moyra Davey
Angela Bulloch
Sara Cwynar
As you can see, the ranking list has not changed much but there are a few noteworthy shifts. My 2022 list included Rodney Graham who died in 2022. Graham had held the number one position in Canada for many years. With his passing an opening appeared at the top of the list. This means everyone moved up the list, but there are still some surprises. Kapwani Kiwanga, who ranked third in 2022, has leaped over Jeff Wall into first place on the list. Wall held the second position on the list for many years. Kiwanga’s rise is likely due, in part, to her recent commission as Canada’s representative at the Venice Biennale (see my post, Trinket). And, Sara Cwynar, previously at 14 on the list, is now number 10. Other than these changes, the artists on the Artfacts list have remained largely the same. The list, of course, is never static as it adjusts slightly every time an artist has a documented and confirmed exhibition or award. For an artist to move to the top of the list, then, would take an extraordinary number of significant exhibitions and/or awards.
Delagrange’s video also identifies how so many of Canada’s top international artists live outside of Canada. Only four of the current top 10 reside in Canada. The others live in New York (or vicinity), Berlin, or Paris. My study of Sobey Art Award winners, Does it Matter Where an Artist Lives and Works? , also showed how many successful Canadian artists live and work in artistic centres outside of Canada while others, like Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, John Rafman and Ed Burtynsky, continue to reside in Canada’s largest artistic centres - Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.