Last spring’s announcement that former MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel had joined Hauser & Wirth as partner was characteristic of the fluidity between the art world’s public and private spheres.

In London — and on a more modest scale — British Museum curator Anna Harnden has also chosen to give art dealing a go. On October 3, 2013, she will inaugurate her Tryon St Gallery in Chelsea with “Heritage Reinvented,” an exhibition, she told BLOUIN ARTINFO UK, gathering “artists who look back at their own cultural heritage to create work that responds to the present.”

Pieces on display will include a large, stealth fighter-shaped sculpture by the Maori artist Brett Graham. Te Hokioi is named after an extinct bird and adorned with patterns alluding to the Kingmaker independence movement, which had given the giant eagle’s name to their revolutionary journal.

Meekyoung Shin will present a series of soap Buddhas, placed for some time in the toilets of museums and presented as ancient artefacts. They will hang side by side with Tom Hunter’s photographs inspired by classical paintings, such as John Evrett Millais’s Ophelia and Eugène Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus.

In her position of Project Curator, Harnden has had the opportunity to work directly with contemporary artists, including with Ali Kazim, who features in Tryon St Gallery’s first exhibition. “That’s how I started to realize was that I really wanted to do was to be able to go out, talk to the artists, go to the studios, and understand how they make their work, and why,” she confided.

It’s early days, and the gallery doesn’t yet represent artists. The venture’s focus, the former curator continued, is “flourishing and emerging markets in South America and South Asia.” “We are also looking to show some African artists next year,” she added.

This is both an artistic and business strategy, and the fledgling gallery director hopes it will attract collectors based in those regions.

“Heritage Reinvented: Brett Graham, Tom Hunter, Ali Kazim, Oscar Santillan, Meekyoung Shin,” from October 3, 2013, Tryon St Gallery, London