Francesco Bonami was born in Florence in 1955. He directed the Venice Biennale Dreams and Conflicts in 2003. In 1997 he curated SITE SANTA FE Biennial, in 2000 Manifesta 3, and in 2010 the Whitney Biennial of American Art. In the late '80s and early '90s he was the US correspondent for Flash Art. From 1995 to 2017 he was the artistic director of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin. From 1999 to 2008 he was the Manilow Senior Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago.

In 2010 he received the Legion of Honor of The French Republic. He curated exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Modern de la Ville of Paris, White Chapel in London, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Pinault Foundation in Venice, Pitti Immagine Discovery in Florence, and public projects for the City of Milan and Florence. He was the curator of several surveys included Jeff Koons, Rudolf Stingel, Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan, and Takashi Murakami. For Palazzo Reale in Milan he curated a show of Bob Dylan's paintings.

He wrote several books. His last one, Post, is published by Feltrinelli. He is a regular contributor of Il Foglio and Vanity Fair Italia. Currently he's the Director of Art Matters, a new art center always designed by Renzo Piano RPBW in Huangzhou that will open also in the winter of 2021. He is the Curator of Maurizio Cattelan Retrospective at UCCA Bejing in fall 2021 and of Urs Fischer’s survey at Jumex Foundation in Mexico City in the spring of 2022. His next book with Feltrinelli is Bello Sembra un Quadro and will be published in the fall of 2022. On Instagram his commentary of the art system can be followed @thebonamist.