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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JULIANNE MOORE
Sim Canetty-Clarke
Photography by Sim Canetty-Clarke

Marc Payot

PRESIDENT, HAUSER & WIRTH

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF?

It would be great if the largest galleries could become more conscious of and knowledgeable about the whole art world ecosystem, top to bottom, and find meaningful ways to support smaller businesses. We’re in it together. There’s space for everyone to thrive. We all need to stop thinking of our industry as a zero-sum game.

WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT YOU?

Being Swiss, I am naturally reserved, and many people mistake this for inflexibility or rigidity. But my family, my wife, my daughters, my close friends, and my closest colleagues all know I am quite open and understanding, tolerant, sentimental. I’m just so busy and in such constant motion with work, that I tend to keep things focused.

“It would be great if the largest galleries could become more conscious of and knowledgeable about the whole art world ecosystem, top to bottom, and find meaningful ways to support smaller businesses. There’s space for everyone to thrive.”

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SURPRISED YOURSELF IN YOUR WORK?

In 2022, I looked at the gallery world and felt strongly that something was missing. I started meeting with colleagues I admire, whose galleries operate at a very different scale from ours—a listening tour. I began dreaming of forming the kind of collective impact partnerships that are so important in academia, medicine, and other fields— fostering mutuality, resource-sharing, mentorship. Fast-forward: Hauser & Wirth has announced our first two collective impact alliances with Nicola Vassell Gallery and Company Gallery, both wonderful younger galleries, and we have more in the pipeline. It’s my belief that the old saying is true—a rising tide lifts all boats.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO CULTURE?

Moving from Switzerland to New York in 2008 to steward Hauser & Wirth into America was a huge step for me and my family. Sixteen years later, our gallery is deeply integrated into the cultural conversation in the United States.

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ROSE BYRNE
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JULIANNE MOORE