Museums & Galleries

CFA Basel

Basel, Switzerland
CFA Basel

Basel, Switzerland

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A Berlin-born gallery in Basel’s historic core, where contemporary art lands inside a building from the 14th century. CFA Basel — Contemporary Fine Arts is a sharp stop for visitors who want Basel beyond museums and the fair.

Contemporary Fine Arts — CFA was founded in Berlin in 1992 by Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet. The gallery expanded to Switzerland in 2023, opening its Basel venue at Totengässlein 5, inside a building dating back to 1345.

That contrast is exactly what makes the space interesting: a historic Basel setting used for a contemporary program focused on artists with strong visual, conceptual and cultural presence. CFA is associated with artists such as Cecily Brown, Georg Baselitz, Sarah Lucas, Raymond Pettibon, Leiko Ikemura and others.

Image credit

© CFA Basel

What you’ll see here

At CFA Basel, expect temporary exhibitions rather than a permanent collection. The gallery works best as a focused stop: one artist, one show, one room-by-room encounter with contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing or installation.

You may encounter:

  • Contemporary painting and sculpture
  • International artists with major institutional presence
  • Solo exhibitions and focused gallery projects
  • A strong dialogue between old Basel architecture and contemporary art
  • A more intimate counterpoint to Art Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel and Fondation Beyeler

Worth the trip

Yes — especially if you want to understand Basel as a living gallery city, not only as a museum capital.

What makes CFA Basel special is the combination of Berlin gallery DNA + Basel collecting culture + historic architecture. It feels serious, precise and contemporary, but with the added atmosphere of an old city that has been shaped by art, money, scholarship and taste for centuries.

For Artlovers, it is worth including because it shows how Basel’s art ecosystem works at multiple scales: museums, fairs, foundations, private collections and galleries all feeding the same cultural intensity.

ArtLovers Tip

Visit it as part of a Basel gallery walk, especially during Art Basel week. CFA gives you a good contrast: after the scale and intensity of the fair, this is a more concentrated way to feel the same international art-world energy.

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