Don't vote! ...

... but do take a look at this New American Paintings post. The latest emerging.../most significant since.../etc.  journalistic tendency only feeds the machine. But here are ten artists whose work is worth searching if you don't know them yet. Among them are:

Nicole Eisenman

I saw her suite of monoprint portraits (detail below) at the 2012 Whitney Biennial and was stopped in my tracks.

Mark Bradford

 In person, one visually sinks into the works' accumulations and dualities. I first saw his densely layered work at the Hammer Museum in L.A. in 2002 and never forgot it.  Here's a multiple interview with him plus images on PinocchioIsOnFire, the Wexner Center's website.

Julie Mehretu

 Of course! Images here.

Tauba Auerbach

I can't make up my mind about her: the typographic work is no more distinctive than that of many graphic designers, but she's found a place for it in the art world – a form of cleverness and positioning. These studies of surfaces (while also clever) are captivating. So, OK!  taubaauerbach.com

Others listed in the post:

Richard Aldrich
Joe Bradley
Mark Grotjahn
Wade Guyton
Chris Martin
R.H. Quaytman
Sterling Ruby
Dana Schutz