From Tyler Mitchell, 23, who became the first African-American to shoot the cover of Vogue, to Rhuigi Villaseñor, the 26-year-old Filipino immigrant who designed the $795 track pants rapper Kendrick Lamar wore to accept his Pulitzer Prize, the 2019 Forbes Art & Style 30 Under 30 list highlights young superstars across the worlds of photography, fashion, illustration, industrial design and the fine arts.
Our featured pick, Sarah Staudinger, 29, created STAUD, an affordable women’s ready-to-wear brand that hits a sweet spot between high end and fast fashion. Her original takes on classic looks like corduroy jumpsuits and leather bucket bags are hits with boldface names like Claire Danes and Dakota Fanning. A Los Angeles native, Staudinger flirted with editorial work before finding her calling with her own company where annual revenue has hit $20 million in just three years.
Other fashion designers on the list include our youngest pick, Nigerian immigrant Taofeek Abijako, 20, whose Head of State+ brand of luxe men’s streetwear is inspired by the late great king of Afrobeat music, Fela Kuti. The next-youngest, Alexandre Daillance, 21, is still in college at Wesleyan University. His streetwear brand, NASASEASONS, sells $90 baseball caps worn by Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and their daughter North. Menswear designer Emily Adams Bode, 29, has carved a distinctive path with her Bode label. Each of her one-of-a-kind garments tells a story, like the boxy $400 sky blue and cream short-sleeved shirt made from a 1970s Provencal tablecloth.
This year’s list includes 13 fine artists, more than in any previous year. Most of them have already displayed their work in museums, like Julien Nguyen, 28. His painting depicting the front page of the New York Times, with eerie fantasy scenes in place of stories, was featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Detroiter Matthew Angelo Harrison, 29, encases traditional African sculptures in smoky resin and places them atop metal pedestals he designs. The New Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem have all displayed his work.
Jordan Casteel’s figurative paintings of African-American men in everyday poses have been compared to Jacob Lawrence and Henri Matisse. At age 29, she has shown at the Studio Museum, at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and she has a solo show slated for 2019 at the Denver Art Museum. Transgender artist Jade Kuriki Olivo, 29, works under the playful name Puppies Puppies. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, her re-imaginings of the readymade have been on display at the Whitney and at three other museums. She has two museum shows slated for next year.
We’re also featuring industrial designers Nicholas Ozemba and Felicia Hung, 27-year-old classmates from the Rhode Island School of Design, whose company, In Common With, sells a selection of distinctive lighting, including the $1,000 Alien Lamp, which has a handmade space saucer-shaped shade affixed to an industrial metal base. Los Angeles lighting designer Simon St. James LeComte, 27, makes custom pieces for restaurants and hotels, like a series of brass-plated pendant lamps for DUMBO House, a members-only club in Brooklyn.
Two illustrators with a slew of awards between them, Korean immigrant JooHee Yoon, 29, and Chinese immigrant Lisk Feng, 28, both have long client lists that include editorial outlets like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post and companies like Warby Parker, Apple, Penguin, Airbnb, and Chanel.
Our list also includes Roya Sachs, 27, an up-and-coming curator who picks art for the display space at Lever House, a modernist building in midtown Manhattan owned by mega-collector Aby Rosen.
I put the list together with help from my able Forbes colleagues, lifestyle editor Michael Solomon, writer Samantha Sharf, who covers real estate and keeps an eye on art and style, and lifestyle assistant editor Kristin Tablang. Our judges this year: Carter Cleveland, who launched Artsy, a global platform for discovering and collecting art, in 2012; he was on our list in 2014. Tory Burch, CEO and chief creative officer of her preppy-chic lifestyle brand of apparel, footwear, watches, accessories and fragrances. And Nicole Miller, president and chief designer of her womenswear brand, known for its bold colors and classic styles and a line of linens and rugs for Bed, Bath & Beyond.
For a link to our complete Art & Style list, click here, and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.
