It’s the best & busiest week in the London art calendar, with no shortage of art fairs, gallery shows, and openings to attend. Read on for the recommendations on what to see & where to go!
As for where to eat & drink this week amongst all the art-going…
- While walking between the Frieze London & Frieze Masters tents stop for a caffeine jolt at the Espresso Bar in Regent’s Park.
- Inside the Frieze London tent, a favourite is always the Gails stand with their enormous table of little cakes & pastries (for a more proper lunch, head to Jikoni, one my favourite London restaurants, which Frieze is hosting this year).
- If you find yourself around Chiltern Street in Marylebone, pop into Shreeji News for a coffee or cosy up at Chiltern Firehouse for a cocktail (you’ll want their parmesan fries to go with that). If they are full Flowerhouse Pub and Clarette are also lovely for a drink. For a nice seated lunch or dinner, book AOK Kitchen.
- Enjoy a latte and light lunch or sweet snack at Watchouse at Somerset House after making your way through the 1-54 fair (for a more leisurely post-fair lunch walk into Covent Garden to dine at Petersham Nurseries).
- Post evening gallery hopping in Central London (there are a few great openings this week, plus galleries stay open late on Thursday night) get a drink at the beautiful and art-centric Red Room bar at the Connaught.
Events
Monday, 10 October
Artist talk (In Conversation: artist Mark Grotjahn & Andrew Fabricant) at Gagosian on Grosvenor Hill, Mayfair, 6.15pm (rsvp required)
Tuesday, 11 October
Artist talk (Teresita Fernández and Sir David Adjaye: Together in Conversation) at Lehmann Maupin, South Kensington, 11am (rsvp required)
Amy Sherald: The World We Make opening at Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair, 6-8pm
Wednesday, 12 October
Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics Exhibition Tour with Rachel Churner, director of the Carolee Schneeman Foundation, Barbican, City 1pm (ticket required)
Opening of Incubator 22 on Chiltern Street, Marylebone, evening (precise timing tba)
Thursday, 13 October
Book signing with Daniel Arsham at Shreeji News on Chiltern Street, Marylebone, 5-7pm
Live drawing & exhibition walkthrough with Bernar Venet at Waddington Custot, 6-8pm
C. Lucy R. Whitehead: Stranger opening at Grove Collective, Battersea, 6-9pm
West End Gallery HOP! where galleries in Mayfair, St James’s, Soho & Fitzrovia stay open late until 8pm, view the full list here
Friday, 14 October
Live Poetry Reading at Unit London, Mayfair, 6pm (rsvp required)
Somerset House Studios celebration with DJs, art installations, and live performances, Strand, 7-11pm (ticket required)
Catherine Repko: Gatherer opening at Huxley Parlour, St James’s, 6-8pm (rsvp required)
Saturday, 15 October
Catch up on gallery shows! Scroll down for the exhibitions list.
Sunday, 16 October
Hit up any of the art fairs you haven’t gotten to yet, or take a scroll through Regent’s Park to view all the works in this year’s edition of Frieze Sculpture.
Art Fairs
Frieze London & Frieze Masters in Regent’s Park, Marylebone
Wednesday-Sunday (only certain time slots are still available!)
Ticket price varies from £34.40 for a student ticket to £90.30 for a combined admission ticket to both fairs
Purchase tickets here
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House, Strand
Thursday, 11am-6pm, £60 private view ticket
Friday-Sunday, 10am-7pm, £25 standard ticket
Purchase tickets here
PAD London at Berkeley Square, Mayfair
Monday 11am-8pm, Collectors Preview ticket £150
Tuesday 11am-8pm, VIP opening ticket £75
Wednesday-Saturday 11am-8pm, Sunday 11am-6pm, standard ticket £25 & student ticket £15
Purchase tickets here
StART Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea
Wednesday 6-9pm, private view ticket £54
Thursday 11am-6pm, Friday & Saturday 11am-7pm, Sunday 11am-5pm, standard ticket £18.36
Purchase tickets here
The Other Art Fair on Brick Lane, Shoreditch
Thursday 5-10pm, private view ticket £25
Friday 1-9pm, Saturday 11am-7pm, Sunday 11am-6pm, standard ticket £12
Purchase tickets here
Exhibitions List
Gallery Shows
Soho & Mayfair
Sensitive Content at Unit London, Mayfair, through 16 October
No.9 Cork Street exhibitions, Mayfair, through 22 October
Caroline Wong: Artificial Paradise, Soho, through 31 October
Nancy Spero: Dancers & Goddesses at Frith Street Gallery, Soho, through 5 November
Tyler Mitchell: Chrysalis at Gagosian on Davies Street, through 12 November
Bernar Venet: Hypotheses at Waddington Custot, Mayfair, through 12 November
Tschabala Self: Home Body at Pilar Corrias, Fitzrovia, through 17 November
Somaya Critchlow: Afternoon’s Darkness at Maximillian William, Fitzrovia, through 19 November
Tai Shani: Your Arms Outstretched Above Your Head Coding with the Angels at Gathering, a new gallery in Soho, through 6 December
Cecily Brown: Studio Pictures at Thomas Dane Gallery, St. James’s, through 17 December
Amy Sherald: The World We Make at Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair, through 23 December
Anne Imhof: Avatar II at Sprueth Magers, Mayfair, through 23 December
Marylebone
Daniel Arsham takeover at Shreeji News on Chiltern Street (pick up a coffee & art magazine at the shop in the front and then head to the back to see the show), Monday 10 - Sunday 16 October, 10am-5pm
Oxbow at Claas Reiss (head to the gallery’s downstairs space to see the show!), Marylebone, through 16 October
Frieze Sculpture, Regent’s Park (enter the park at Park Square by the Regent’s Park and Great Portland Street tube stops), through 13 November
West London
Serpentine Pavilion: Black Chapel by Theaster Gates in Hyde Park, Kensington, through 16 October
Teresita Fernádez: Caribbean Cosmos at Lehmann Maupin, South Kensington, through 5 November
East London
Carolee Scheemann: 1955-1959 at Hales Gallery, Shoreditch, through 29 October (only a 20 minute walk from the Caroleen Schneeman show at the Barbican for a day deep diving into the artist’s work)
We Are What We See exhibition presented by Glimpses of Art, Shoreditch, Tuesday 11 October - Monday 17 October (a convenient 15 minute walk away from The Other Art Fair, ticket required)
Alice Neel: There’s Still Another I See, at Victoria Miro, Angel, through 12 November
The Artist is Present at Guts Gallery, Hackney, through 3 November
South West London
C. Lucy R. Whitehead: Stranger at Grove Collective, Battersea, through 19 November
Fall Museum Shows
Cecilia Vicuña’s Hyundai Commission sculptural installation opens this week in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in Bankside; while you’re there see the recently opened The EY Exhibition: Cezanne (ticket required)
Two wonderful shows at the Royal Academy in Mayfair:
Milton Avery: American Colourist closes this week(ticket required)
William Kentridge exhibition (ticket required)
Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square (ticket required)
Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today at the Design Museum, Kensington, opening 14 October (ticket required)
Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics at the Barbican, City (ticket required)
Out of the Margins: Performance in London’s institutions 1990s – 2010s at Whitechapel Gallery, Whitechapel/Spitalfields