Barbara Gladstone is the owner of the renowned Gladstone Gallery and major art dealer.

An art history professor at Hofstra University, Gladstone put everything on the line when she opened her tiny, eponymous art gallery in 1980 at the age of forty. However, her keen eye for emerging talent clearly paid off, and she has since represented the likes of Matthew Barney, whom she gave his first New York show, Shirin Neshat, Anish Kapoor, and Carroll Dunham. Riding high in the 80s, Gladstone eked her way through the 90s bust (all the more difficult having lost her son to a battle with cancer), and established her new gallery in Chelsea from its former Soho iteration in 1996. These days she's considered a sort of industry matriarch with her no-frills attitude and strong moral code (her mantra: the artist always comes first). [Image via Getty, with Rosalie Benitez and Gavin Brown]