The Director of Art Basel Miami Beach, Bridget Finn, On This Year’s Fair
By David Graver
Art Basel Miami Beach—a cornerstone of the global art market since its introduction in December 2002—is set to embrace design in a comprehensive way this year. “For the first time, Salone del Mobile will be curating our Collectors Lounge with Lissoni & Partners, furnishing the space with an array of leading Italian designers, while Design Within Reach and Moooi will take over the East Salon showcasing distinctive furniture and lighting,” Bridget Finn, the fair’s director, tells Surface. This is but one of many forthcoming highlights which assuredly will include discoveries from the 283 leading international galleries participating.
“The fair has always been rooted in exchange and discovery, and this year that spirit feels especially alive: from the dynamic interplay of North and South America to the dialogue between established and emerging voices,” Finn says. “While design, fashion, sport, and other cultural spheres naturally converge here, they do so because of the art—and the exchange it generates. The artists and their work anchor the entire ecosystem, setting the tone, shaping the dialogue, and drawing these wider creative communities into meaningful conversation.” It’s this richness of perspective, according to Finn, that makes Art Basel Miami Beach an essential destination on the international cultural calendar.
Finn says that the galleries remain the heart of the fair. “In the main sector we see strong modern-art presentations—for example, Berry Campbell spotlighting underrecognized women artists; Locks Gallery returning with a survey of seven decades of American modernism; Hirschl & Adler showing southern self-taught artists; and Sicardi Ayers Bacino emphasizing Latin American masters.”
“On the contemporary side,” she adds, “Miami’s Nina Johnson Gallery participates for the first time with new works by Diné artist Patrick Dean Hubbell; El Apartamento—the first homegrown Cuban gallery at the fair, opening a space in Miami—presents Cuban artists examining the notion of ‘otherness;’ and Gallery Wendi Norris shows new monumental paintings by Enrique Martínez Celaya.”