Following the surprise departure of Kate Bryan as the director of London’s Art15 fair, Nathan Clements-Gillespie has been appointed the new head. Clements-Gillespie joins Art16 from MACRO, Rome's Museum of Contemporary Art, where he was the director of external affairs for four years, working on the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013.
Bryan, who stepped down after only one edition, left “to spend more time on developing her career in television and other related interests”, says Tim Etchells, who co-founded the fair with Sandy Angus. Etchells says they were “as surprised as anybody else” by Bryan’s change of heart.
During her ten-month tenure as director of Art15, Bryan introduced a number of initiatives. They included a specially curated exhibition, organised by Kathleen Soriano, the former director of exhibitions at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the New 100 Club, which provides a platform for young art collectors under 40. Bryan also slashed the number of galleries from 180 in 2014 to 134 this year.
Etchells says Clements-Gillespie has “already indicated” that he wants to maintain quality over quantity when it comes to the number of galleries. Ventures such as the New 100 Club will also continue, he says.
“When we met Nathan, Sandy and I were both very impressed by his entrepreneurial skills,” Etchells says. “He reminded us of Magnus Renfrew [the former director of ArtHK, another fair founded by Etchells and Angus] in terms of being an intellectual with a good commercial mind.”
Etchells adds that not coming from an art fair background can be a good thing. “Nathan will bring new ideas, he has a solid vision for the fair,” he says. Details are due to be released in the coming weeks.