Art Basel has named Bridget Finn as the new director of its Miami Beach show, the largest art fair in the Western Hemisphere.
Finn was most recently a partner in the Detroit-based gallery Reyes Finn, the gallery she co-founded with Terese Reyes in 2017. Shortly after Art Basel’s announcement on Wednesday (19 July), Reyes Finn announced it has closed permanently. Its final exhibition, a solo exhibition by sculptor Nikita Gale, closed 15 July.
Finn previously held positions at Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Anton Kern Gallery, both in New York. In 2020, Finn co-founded Art Mile Detroit, a city-wide exhibition platform. Finn co-founded Cleopatra’s, a collaborative curatorial project space, that operated in New York and Berlin between 2008 and 2018.
Finn sits on the board of Independent Curators International and is active on the advisory committee of the Progressive Art Studio Collective.
“We are thrilled with Bridget’s appointment and could not have found a better fit to lead our Miami Beach fair,” Art Basel’s chief executive Noah Horowitz, who oversaw the Florida fair from 2015 to 2021, said in a statement. “She has vision, ambition and the requisite skill set in spades to drive forward our team and our many new and longtime partners in Miami Beach.”
Inverted Monument (2022), a sculpture by Do Ho Suh at Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2022 Eric Thayer
Finn will take the reins for the fair’s 22nd edition in 2024 under Art Basel’s new leadership structure, in which a separate director is assigned to each of its four fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong and Paris.
“I am deeply honoured to assume this role, and to join in the transformative journey of Art Basel Miami Beach since it was launched more than 20 years ago,” Finn said in a statement.
Finn’s new role is the latest in a shakeup at Art Basel. Other new appointees include Maike Cruse, director of Art Basel in Basel, the flagship fair in the company’s Swiss home base; Clément Delépine, the director of Paris+ par Art Basel; and Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel in Hong Kong. Former Art Basel global director Marc Spiegler stepped down in 2022 after 15 years, and was replaced by Horowitz after a brief stint at Sotheby’s.
Last year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach was the largest edition of the fair yet, with 283 galleries taking part, surpassing the fair’s stand figures even before the Covid-19 pandemic decimated art fairs for several years.
