It started on impulse. Eight years ago, Patrick Finnegan attended a charity auction for SoHo Arts Club in Lower Manhattan and walked away with his first piece of art, a painting by Con$umr. It remained the entirety of his collection until three years later, when he officially started acquiring works.
Since then, he’s quickly scooped up pieces by artists like Anna Weyant, Seth Becker, Jorge Galindo, Daniel Correa Mejía, Alexander James, and so many more. He’s also managed to become a client of celebrity advisor Ralph DeLuca, whom he credits with helping to refine his eye and cultivate gallery relationships.
It’s a distant world from Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Finnegan grew up visiting the Clark Art Institute and MASS MoCA, but a seed was planted in those early years. “My first encounter in the art world was through my parents’ relationship with an incredible painter named Stephen Hannock,” he explains. “Though we aren’t particularly close, I recall learning about him from a young age.”
The speed with which Finnegan has found his way into the most polished of blue-chip circles should be no surprise. A wunderkind of sorts, he moved to New York without a high school or college degree, getting his start in venture capital before he was old enough to order a martini. Finnegan established his name as a go-to Gen-Z expert, advising global corporations on how to reach his peers. Now, he spends his days running an early-stage investment firm, Second Sight Ventures.
Personal engagement has been an important part of Finnegan’s career—and his approach to collecting. “I acquire pieces that resonate with me personally, both on an emotional and visual level,” he says, but “establishing a personal connection with artists adds a deeper layer of intimacy to the collection.”
Though Finnegan has already been able to collect artists like Ed Ruscha and Marcel Dzama, his sights are set on the future as he grows his collection, with Cecily Brown, Nicolas Party, George Condo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Danielle Mckinney on his most-wanted list.
For more from the 2024 Young Collectors list, read conversations with Daniel English, Noora Raj Brown, and Jen Rubio.
