2025 Art Icon Gala

Art world celebrates Doris Salcedo as the recipient of Whitechapel Gallery’s 2025 Art Icon Award

On the evening of Monday 3 March 2025, Colombian artist, Doris Salcedo (b. 1958, Bogotá) was presented with Whitechapel Gallery’s prestigious annual Art Icon Award, which celebrates the work of an artist who has made a profound contribution to the artistic landscape and influenced a generation of artists.

In a room of more than 140 artists, collectors, art world and cultural luminaries, Salcedo’s contribution to contemporary art was celebrated with an award presented by the eminent lawyer and human rights champion, Lady Helena Kennedy at a special gala celebration held at Whitechapel Gallery. The evening featured a special reading by award-winning Turkish-British novelist, essayist and activist, Elif Shafak from her latest work There Are Rivers in the Sky, followed by a performance from Colombian singer-songwriter Stephanie Santiago.

The celebration, held at the Gallery, was hosted by Gilane Tawadros, Whitechapel Gallery Director and Dr David Dibosa, Chair of Whitechapel Gallery Trustees.

The gala welcomed key art world figures, including Sir Nicholas Serota, Jay Jopling, Frances Morris, Russel Tovey and Gregor Muir, along with artists Gillian Wearing, Michael Landy, Julianknxx and Anya Gallaccio. Also in attendance was the Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom Antonio Patriota. The event was made possible thanks to the Art Icon committee, comprising Jeremy Achkar, Dorota Audemars, Erin Bell, Charlotte Gibbs, Beth Greenacre, Dame Vivian Hunt & Nicholas Basden, Susannah Hyman and Maria Sukkar, many of whom were in attendance.

Following a drinks reception with Pommery Brut Royal Champagne NV, guests enjoyed a menu by The Recipe of artichoke rillette, roasted monkfish tail and winter squash followed by a sachertorte, with white chocolate cremieux. The galleries were adorned with floral spreads of red roses and dried flowers provided by Les Soeurs de Fleurs.

Gilane Tawadros, Whitechapel Gallery Director said:

“I am delighted to have awarded the 2025 Art Icon Award to Doris Salcedo. Throughout her career, Salcedo has made powerful and compelling works of art that address themes of violence, exclusion and human rights, drawing attention to human tragedy. Her work gives form to pain, trauma and loss in a way which is intimate and humane, enabling us to connect on an individual and collective level that contrasts strikingly with media accounts of human suffering. I’m sometimes asked what single artwork has had the most impact on me and the answer I always give is Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. A Shibboleth is a word that when spoken marks one group out from another. In this extrodinary work, a fissure was cut through the floor of the space, opening up a fault line in the very foundation of the museum and drawing our attention to the yawning gap between between our rhetoric about democracy and human rights and the reality that this age of rights has in fact been the age of the greatest abuse of human rights.

 For the artist, “every work of art is political, because every work of art is breaking new ground’.  At a time when conflict and violence continues to erupt with grim reverberations across the globe, Doris Salcedo’s work has never felt more resonant and important, acting as a beacon for how art can illuminate our shared humanity and offer a much needed space for reflection, remembrance and mourning.”

Guests bought tickets for the evening to help raise vital funds for Whitechapel Gallery’s Exhibition and Participation Programmes. An online auction, hosted by Phillips, featured exceptional original artworks generously donated by leading contemporary artists including Andrew Pierre Hart, Gideon Rubin, Ali Kazim, Daisy Dodd-Noble, Taylor Simmons, Wynnie Mynerva, Ania Hobson, Danny Fox, Julie Curtiss, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Michele Fletcher, Rose Nestler, Studio Lenca, Hettie Inniss, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Victoria Cantons, Peter Kennard, Christopher Page, Michael Armitage, Sang Woo Kim, many of whom were in attendance on the night. Alongside Whitechapel Gallery’s 2025 Art Icon Auction, Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Sholto Blissett generously donated work for private sale.

Cheyenne Westphal, Global Chairwoman, Phillips, said:

“Phillips is honoured to support Whitechapel Gallery for the twelfth annual Art Icon Gala, which this year celebrated the extraordinary achievements of Doris Salcedo and the profound impact of her work on the artistic landscape. We are thrilled to serve as the auction partner for the Art Icon online auction on Phillips.com. Proceeds from the auction will directly benefit Whitechapel Gallery’s Exhibitions and pioneering Participation Programmes.

Through our ongoing partnership with Whitechapel Gallery and our broader global Arts Partnerships programme, Phillips remains dedicated to fostering, supporting and championing contemporary art and culture on both local and international stages.”

Press Information

Link to download event images here.

For more information, interviews and images, contact:

Hannah Vitos, Rees & Co

E hannah@reesandco.com

Will Ferreira Dyke, Whitechapel Gallery

E willferreiradyke@whitechapelgallery.org

Notes for Editors

About Doris Salcedo:

Doris Salcedo was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1958 where she continues to live and work. Her solo exhibitions include Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2023); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2022); Glenstone, Travilah, Maryland (2022); Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lubbeck, Germany (2019); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); Palacio de Cristal, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2017); Harvard Art Museums, Massachusetts (2016); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, touring to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2015–16); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2014); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico, touring to Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, White Cube, London and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2011–13); Tate Modern, London (2007); Camden Arts Centre, London (2001); Tate Britain, London (1999); and New Museum, New York (1998).

About Whitechapel Gallery:

Whitechapel Gallery was founded in 1901 with the aim to bring great art to the people of East London. From the outset, the Gallery exemplified a bold programme of exhibitions and educational activities, driven by the desire to enrich the cultural offer for local communities and provide new opportunities for extraordinary artists from across the globe to showcase their works to UK audiences – often for the first time.

From ground-breaking solo shows from artists as diverse as Barbara Hepworth (1954), Jackson Pollock (1958), Helio Oiticica (1969), Gilbert & George (1971), Eva Hesse (1979), Frida Kahlo (1982), Sonia Boyce DBE RA (1988), Sophie Calle (2010), Zarina Bhimji (2012), Emily Jacir (2015), William Kentridge (2016), Theaster Gates (2021), Nicole Eisenman (2023), Zineb Sedira (2024), Gavin Jantjes (2024), Peter Kennard (2024), Lygia Clark (2024), Sonia Boyce (2024), Donald Rodney (2025) to thought-provoking group and thematic exhibitions that reflect key artistic and cultural concerns, the Gallery’s focus on bringing artists, ideas, and audiences together, remains as important today as it did over a century ago and has helped to cement the East End, as one of the world’s most exciting and diverse cultural quarters.

We are proud to be a Gallery that is locally embedded and globally connected. Its vision, under the current Directorship of Gilane Tawadros, is to ensure Whitechapel Gallery claims a distinctive and radical position in the social and cultural landscape, building on its pioneering history, while translating and animating it for our time.

About Art Icon:

The Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award was established in 2014 and celebrates the work of an artist who has made a profound contribution to the artistic landscape and influenced a generation of artists. Previous recipients of the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award are Sir Howard Hodgkin CH CBE (2014), Richard Long RA (2015) Joan Jonas (2016), Peter Doig (2017), Mona Hatoum (2018), Rachel Whiteread DBE (2019), Francis Alÿs (2020), Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (2021), Tracey Emin DBE RA (2022), Jenny Holzer (2023) and Isaac Julien KBE RA (2024).