Spencer Finch (born 1962 inNew Haven, Connecticut) is an American artist. After attendingThe Hotchkiss School, he graduatedmagna cum laude with a B.A. in comparative literature fromHamilton College in 1985. Finch then pursued an M.F.A. in sculpture from theRhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1989. The first retrospective of his work, which ended in March 2008, was assembled atMASS MoCA inNorth Adams, MA. He currently lives and works inBrooklyn, NY.

Finch produces work in a wide variety of mediums, including watercolor,photography, glass, electronics,video andfluorescent lights. He is perhaps best known for dealing with the elusive concepts of memory andperception throughlight installations. After measuring with acolorimeter the light that exist naturally in a specific place and time, Finch re-constructs the luminosity of the location through artificial means. For example, Moonlight (Luna County, New Mexico, July 13, 2003), replicates the exact light of the full moon that shone over the desert of Luna County, New Mexico on the evening of July 13, 2003.^[1]

Creative Time,Friends of the High Line, and theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation commissionedThe River That Flows Both Ways to Spencer Finch as the inaugural art installation for theHigh Line Park. The work is integrated into the window bays of the formerNabisco Factory loading dock, as a series of 700 purple and grey colored glass panes. Each color is exactly calibrated to match the center pixel of 700 digital pictures, one taken every minute, of the Hudson River, therefore presenting an extended portrait of the river that gives the work its name. Creative Time worked with the artist to realize the site-specific concept that emerged when he saw the rusted, disusedmullions of the old factory, which metal and glass specialists Jaroff Design helped to prepare and reinstall.^[2]

Finch was chosen to create the only work of art commissioned for theNational September 11 Memorial & Museum. For his work, "Trying To Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning," Finch hand-painted 2,983 squares ofFabriano paper — one square in a unique shade of blue for every person killed in theSeptember 11 attacks and in the1993 bombing of theWorld Trade Center.^[3]

• "Spencer Finch". Galerie Nordenhake.
• "Spencer Finch". Yvon Lambert Gallery.
• "Spencer Finch". Lisson Gallery.
• "Spencer Finch". James Cohen Gallery.
• Goodbody, Bridget L. (June 19, 2007)."Art Review/Spencer Finch: Trying to Capture a Trick of Light, a Tug of Memory".The New York Times.
• Dailey, Megan (September 1, 2009)."Spencer Finch".Art Info.