This Art Collector's Home is a Traveler's Paradise

For most (Americans), Cuba is a bucket-list destination; one they hope to visit before hordes of tourists arrive and ruin everything. For others, (pretty much every other nationality), it’s a place they’ve visited for years, taking in its unspoiled beaches, culture, and of course, cigars. For artist Bryant Toth, though, it’s a place he’s been lucky enough to both live and visit over the last seven years. The Californian-turned-New Yorker’s itch to travel to the island was influenced by his parents’ and mentors’ twenty years of experiences there. After only his first trip he became enthralled by the city of Havana and its abundance of unseen artists—and shortly thereafter his eponymous gallery, Bryant Toth Fine Art, was founded. His goal? To merge and saturate the American art world with that of Cuba. Specifically, the under-represented contemporary Cuban artists whom he has worked with and mentored.

Toth’s previous role in membership at Soho House allowed him to make the rounds in various cities, only proving his theory that the hotel industry can seemlessly bleed into music, fashion, film and of course, art. Ahead of his latest exhibition on November 3rd, Hector Frank’s Bridge to Cuba, we stopped by Toth’s Chinatown apartment to get a private tour and chat about the stories behind the artifacts—Cuban and otherwise—collected from his travels, why hospitality will always run through his veins, and what it’s like falling in love with America’s southern neighbors.