Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

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CAROLINA & CAMILLA CUCINELLI
ORTUZAR
Photography by ORTUZAR

ALES ORTUZAR

GALLERIST

The Spanish-born, New York–based art dealer is the industry’s most reliable starmaker for artists who have been unjustly excluded from the canon, from Ernie Barnes to Suzanne Jackson.

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR? Believe it or not I was a bit of a rebel. I kept my parents up at night!

WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU IN 2025? Well-deserved museum shows for a few of our artists—Takako Yamaguchi at MOCA in Los Angeles and Suzanne Jackson at SFMOMA. We will also have some exciting new artists at the gallery, and a potential new second gallery location.

NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE. Marian Goodman. She always brought a conviction to her program, irrespective of the market. Artists revere her because she was so supportive of the creative process. She built a gallery on her own terms.

"Believe it or not I was a bit of a rebel. I kept my parents up at night!"

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF? More risk-taking, from all parties—museums, galleries, artists, collectors. Less focus on trends and more focus on individual artists.

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? The environmental and political crises we find ourselves in.

WHO DO YOU CALL THE MOST? On any day, it’s either my mom or Suzanne Jackson.

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CAROLINA & CAMILLA CUCINELLI