Conrad Shawcross

Conrad Shawcross's rise in the British art world was unprecedented, beginning with his 2003 debut, a wooden machine that slowly wound threads into yarn. It was quickly acquired by the mega-­collector Charles Saatchi. A year later, at the age of 25, Shawcross cold-called Victoria Miro, arguably one of London's most important dealers. "I got a meeting, and two weeks later she took me on," he says. In 2013 he was inducted into London's Royal Academy of Art, the youngest person ever to achieve the honor.