Ai Weiwei No 2 on list of contemporary art world’s most influential; Hong Kong pair in top 100

Swiss husband-and-wife art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth, who offer clients a lush English country lifestyle along with their big-tag purchases, were named the most influential people in the contemporary art world this week by ArtReview magazine.

Chinese dissident artist and free-speech activist Ai Weiwei, who has previously topped the list, took the number two spot, while German gallery owner David Zwirner was ranked third in the British-based magazine’s “Power 100” of contemporary art.

Hongkongers Claire Hsu (co-founder of the Asia Art Archive) and Adrian Cheng Chi-kong (collector and head of K11 Art Foundation) are up on their ranking at 71 and 76 respectively, while Eugene Tan director of the National Art Gallery in Singapore re-enters at 99.

The Wirths, who have been in the magazine’s top 10 for some years, claimed the top spot for the impact of a cultural centre- cum-gallery they have opened in Somerset, southwest England, where they renovated a 15th-century farmhouse and landscaped and installed sculptures on the grounds around it.

“It’s partly about breaking away from the conventional gallery model which is sort of a slightly oppressive white-cube space that could be in any place almost at any time and moving towards a series of galleries that are specific to their content,” Mark Rappolt, ArtReview’s editor, said.

“It’s a departure from the sort of very forbidding gallery that we’re used to,” he said in a telephone interview in advance of publication of the list on Thursday in the magazine, which says the rankings are compiled by a 16-member international jury.