Idris Khan, Conrad Shawcross and Grayson Perry are among the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 celebration of London’s most influential people

The artists are featured among London's Top Visualisers: Artists & Curators

Idris Khan

Khan, a London resident since studying at the Royal College of Art, produces distinctive work drawing on cultural sources including literature, history, art, music and religion — the Koran is one he repeatedly uses. Working with photography and drawing techniques, he produces densely layered imagery that is both abstract and figurative and which addresses narratives of history, cumulative experience and time. His work has been described as “experiments in compressed memories”.

Conrad Shawcross

Unlike many artists, Shawcross relishes the practical challenges of making big public sculptures, and has produced another major work this summer: a huge rotating sculpture hanging at St Pancras station, with an underlying anti-Brexit message. Son of writers William Shawcross and Marina Warner, he has carved a unique career, hovering between science and art: another monster project was shown in the Barbican’s science fiction show this summer.

Grayson Perry

Award-winning for his art and now his television programmes, Perry has crossed the Rubicon between the niche art world and household name recognition. Always seeing his two roles as intertwined, he chose to explore Brexit among other subjects in his Serpentine exhibition, The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! And while some critics were underwhelmed at the show, the public, as he expected, are turning up in droves. Perry, his psychiatrist and TV-presenting wife, Philippa, and the family cat, Kevin, have a lively social media presence.

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Image: portrait of Idris Khan by Robert Glowacki