Art Cities of the Future: 21st-Century Avant-Gardes

In the 1990s a quiet revolution began. Contemporary art, for decades an enterprise dominated by a relatively small number of individuals – artists, dealers, collectors, curators and critics based in three or four cities – gradually became global. Biennials sprang up in every corner of the world just as cheap airfares began to shrink the distances between them. Emerging technologies opened up new lines of communication, and international publishers launched contemporary art lists. Meanwhile art fairs grew and multiplied, creating a movable feast with regular stops on every continent.

Today the art world is more of a world in every sense, with a larger population, a wider territory and a greater number of nationalities. Its prevailing conversation, however, has yet to catch up. This conversation, still shaped by the belief that artistic progress stems from the avant-garde – a cohesive group with a common lineage, all grappling with a shared set of artistic issues – risks overlooking the real breakthroughs taking place all around us.

Art Cities of the Future uncovers twelve distinct avant-gardes that have emerged around the world in recent decades. Twelve curators each select eight artists to represent the avant-garde of a specific city. These artists may be senior figures or newer faces, artists working in familiar mediums or inventing their own, but they all share two qualities: a commitment to experimental art and a dedication to their local milieu.

These twelve cities are art's next capitals, and from this batch of 96 artists will emerge tomorrow's stars – the future heroes of art history and the market's next blue-chip investments.