The data delving continues, this week we will be looking at the ultra contemporary artists whose careers somehow still managed to thrive during the ongoing pandemic.

This is not to belittle those whose careers perhaps (understandably) did not soar in the last year, but simply another way of observing the ebb and flow of the artworld in such a time. Here, the total number of exhibitions refers to an artist’s participation in solo, group, art fair and biennial exhibitions.

Top 10 exhibited living ultra contemporary artists in 2020/21
Listed in order of most exhibitions.

Alicja Kwade
38 exhibitions
Born 1979, Poland/Germany
Photography, sculpture, installation art
Ranked 64 globally, 17 Germany, 1 Poland

Kapwani Kiwanga
37 exhibitions
Born 1978, Canada
Installation/ Sculpture /video /performance
Ranked 401 Globally, 7 in Canada

Laura Prouvost
31 exhibitions
Born 1978, France
Time based media, sculpture, installation art
Ranked 102 Globally, 9 in Canada

Trevor Paglen
22 exhibitions
Born 1975, United States
Photography, time based media
Ranked 145 globally, 41 in United States

Lionel Smit
22 exhibitions
Born 1982, South Africa
Painting, Sculpture
Ranked 11,448 globally, 77 in South Africa

Julian Charrière
21exhibitions
Born 1987, Switzerland / France
Sculpture
Ranked 297 globally, 14 in Switzerland, 30 in France

Hank Willis Thomas
21exhibitions, Born 1976, United States
Photography, Time-based media
Ranked 277 globally, 79 in United States

Christian Eisenberger
20 exhibitions, Born 1978, Austria
Painting, Sculpture, Performance
Ranked 840 globally, 35 in Austria

Jens Rausch
20 exhibitions, Born 1976, Germany
Painting, Drawing
Ranked 11,500 globally,1,682 in Germany

Camille Henrot
19 exhibitions, Born 1978, France
Time-based media
Ranked 132 globally, 13 in France

For any artist, that number of exhibitions is impressive, let alone during such a difficult time.

You may have noticed that a majority of these artists are ranked in the top 1,000 in the world, except for Lionel Smit, and Jens Rausch who are ranked in the top 20,000. Their placing in this list, demonstrates that you need not be in the very, very top globally to be very successful. Which we always find encouraging to observe.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our sweltering summer data-delving series.

Let’s make history happen.

The Artfacts Team