Philosopher Yuk Hui Ranked Among World’s Most Influential Figures Shaping Contemporary Art

Understanding the Power 100

Far more than a popularity ranking, ArtReview’s Power 100 is described as an annual “portrait of power in the artworld”: an analysis of who and what has substantively shaped the conditions of art over the past year. Crucially, the list defines the artworld as a social network of relationships, rather than an economic or purely aesthetic system. It highlights the agents whose influence—intellectual, organisational, infrastructural, artistic—has actively steered which artworks and ideas entered public visibility.

The list is assembled through a rigorous process involving about thirty international experts from across the art ecosystem. Contributors nominate figures whose impact has been active, tangible, and international in resonance. The methodology recognises many forms of artworld power: not only financial or institutional, but also conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives that guide how artists, curators, and publics engage with emerging cultural and technological realities. In recent years, the list has increasingly mirrored a multipolar global artworld, acknowledging shifts away from long-dominant Western centres and spotlighting thinkers and practitioners developing new infrastructures, narratives, and forms of cultural production.

Yuk Hui’s Influence on Art, Technology, and Planetary Thinking

Hui’s inclusion at number 40 reflects his growing significance at the intersection of philosophy, media theory, and contemporary artistic practice. His theoretical work has become a key reference point for artists, curators, and researchers engaging with emergent technologies, from artificial intelligence and robotics to digital infrastructures and non-Western knowledge systems.

Hui first entered wider artworld discourse during the mid-2010s, when he co-organised the symposium 30 Years After Les Immatériaux: Art, Science and Theory at Leuphana University of Lüneburg alongside curator Andreas Broeckmann. Revisiting Jean-François Lyotard’s seminal 1985 exhibition on telecommunication technologies and the human condition, the symposium helped catalyse renewed thinking on how contemporary technologies reshape aesthetic experience and cultural imagination.

Since then, Hui has authored several influential books. Art and Cosmotechnics (2021) examined how traditions such as Chinese landscape painting can inform philosophical approaches to AI and robotics. Central to his influence is his concept of cosmotechnics—the idea that multiple cosmologies, not only Western rationalism, can and should shape technological development. This framework has had direct curatorial impact: the organisers of the 2025 Seoul Mediacity Biennale explicitly cited cosmotechnics as a foundational influence on their exhibition.

Hui’s intellectual momentum continued in 2024 with the near-simultaneous publication of Post-Europe and Machine and Sovereignty: For a Planetary Thinking, works that deepen his interrogation of technology, geopolitics, and the futures of coexistence on a planetary scale. His writing has increasingly appeared in discussions of artists exploring new media, algorithmic systems, and posthuman ecologies.

An Academic Achievement with Global Reach

For the university community, Hui’s recognition underscores the scholarly impact our researchers have across disciplines and beyond academia. His work resonates internationally, shaping not only philosophical discourse but also curatorial strategies, artistic experimentation, and emerging conversations around planetary futures and technological ethics.