Far and w ide
As the head of Soho House’s ever-growing art collection, Kate Bryan strives to showcase emerging female talent
It might come as a surprise to learn that one of the best careers in art is actually in hospitality – but then, the role in question is at Soho House. The group owns an international collection encompassing at least 4,500 contemporary artworks. ‘I love my job because I have real buying power, pulling power and communication power,’ says Kate Bryan, its head of collections, who made her mark last year at the Ned, the brand’s newly opened hotel and members’ club. Inverting the FTSE 100 CEO gender ratio, she created an exhibition of 93 pieces by female artists and seven by men.
Bryan has always been a trailblazer. The first in her family to go to university, she developed her passion for making art accessible at the British Museum, where she worked with curatorial greats such as Neil MacGregor. ‘He has an extraordinary mind,’ she says, ‘and is an unbelievably gifted speaker in the way he ties ideas together to make you think differently.’ After teaching art history in Italy, she ran a gallery in Hong Kong from 2007 for four years, where she staged Peter Blake’s first show in Asia. She came back to London in 2011, overseeing the recently launched Art15 fair, and then became the youngest director of the Fine Art Society at the age of 29, but the pace of the institution eventually frustrated her. When the painter Jonathan Yeo, who originated the idea of Soho House’s collection, told her that the brand’s founder Nick Jones was looking for someone to take its curation over full-time, she went for the job.
Since starting, Bryan has acquired more than 3,500 artworks for 18 sites in two years, applying her expansive world-view and keen artistic eye to site-specific displays in each establishment. For the refurbishment of 40 Greek Street, she commissioned artists including Tracey Emin, Tacita Dean and Yinka Shonibare to create a continuous line drawing in homage to Paul Klee, who famously said ‘a line is a dot that went for a walk’. She also founded the exhibition platform ‘40, 40, 40’, whereby 40 artists under 40 show work in the bar.
How does Bryan reconcile the exclusive nature of a members’ club with her democratic outlook? With such creative freedom, she sees the setup as a way to support the younger generation, particularly women. ‘But we’ve also plenty of works by the best museum-level artists – Edward Ruscha, Damien Hirst – so everyone is in really good company.’ Meanwhile, she’s planning to feature the works in a new book, to start a digital platform for non-members and to arrange viewings by appointment.
For now, Bryan is concentrating on forthcoming club openings in Mumbai, Hong Kong, LA and Paris. Soho House Amsterdam refers to the country’s artistic heritage. At the latest addition to the group, Little Beach House Barcelona, guests can enjoy tapestry and ceramics akin to those made in Spain in the early part of the 20th century, while Jean Cocteau’s poetry and painting will influence Soho House Paris. ‘The artists give us so much and are so generous,’ says Bryan. ‘The houses just wouldn’t be the same without the art.’
Kate Bryan will host a panel of artists as part of Bazaar Art Week on Friday 5 October (www. bazaar artweek.co.uk).