Miami’s Bass Museum Appoints Philippe Vergne as Artistic Director and Chief Curator
3June 5, 2026
On Thursday, theBass Museum of Artin Miami Beach announced thatPhilippe Vergne, the French curator and current director of theSerralves Museum of Contemporary Artin Porto, Portugal, will join the institution as its artistic director and chief curator in October of this year.
In this newly created position, the longtime arts executive will effectively take the Bass’s helm. Vergne will be in charge of overseeing the museum’s public programming, exhibitions and artistic direction, as well as strengthening relationships with international partner institutions and re-envisioning the museum’s curatorial scope.
“We’ve developed this job description for Phillippe in an organic way because he has a long history of working on artist commissions and [overseeing] projects from scratch,” Silvia Karman Cubiñá, executive director of The Bass, told the Art Newspaper. Related Kulapat Yantrasast Named Artistic Director of 2027 Bukhara Biennial Cecilia Alemani to Curate 2027 Taipei Biennial
Vergne, who has served as the director of the Serralves Museum since 2019, previously held roles as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York and director of the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Marseille. Vergne co-curated the 2006 Whitney Biennial with Chrissie Iles, and, in 2014, curated the first major retrospective of Carl Andre’s work in the United States since the 1970s: Carl Andre: Sculpture as Place, 1958-2010 at Dia Beacon. Vergne has also been awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (2014) and the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (2004).
“I am honored to join The Bass’ team,” Vergne said in a statement. “I am very impressed with the consistent and deliberate work that Silvia Cubiñá has done over the years to create an institution deeply committed to artists across cultures and disciplines and to the transformative potential of contemporary art and ideas.” Dovetailing with Vergne’s appointment, the Bass is also currently planning a major expansion project, led by the architecture firm Johnston Marklee. The planned changes include the addition of a new gallery, pavilion, and outdoor stage complex.