Frieze Week is upon us, but we don’t need to tell you what to see inside that massive white tent in the middle of Regent’s Park. It’s better to go in and lose yourself amongst the art, the people-watching, and the champagne, while checking out the booths of Sadie Coles HQ, David Zwirner, White Cube, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth and whoever else takes your fancy. We’re here to tell you what to do when you’re not browsing the art. Whether that’s stopping for a spot of lunch to ponder your purchases, heading to the river to get a nightcap on your way home, or taking a tour of the other exhibitions opening their doors across the city. Below, we share our top Frieze Week picks – enjoy!

Feast of Fools curated by Corbin Shaw
Sheffield-born artist Corbin Shaw is perhaps best known for his tongue-in-cheek slogan flags and for producing multimedia artwork at the intersection of masculinity and identity. However, this Frieze week, he’s turning his hand to curation. Taking over The Groucho Club, Feast of Fools brings together the work of ten artists whose work meditates on the conventions, hierarchies and social codes of the art world. Danny Ische-Knoblauch, Alex Morante, Doron Beuns, Goldeh, Jett Sacher, Lily Bunney, Tegan Chinogurei and Mia-Violet Leech will exhibit their varied practices alongside Corbin himself.

Feast of Fools runs at The Groucho Club until mid-November. 

Hotel Il Pellicano at Bobbi’s Bar, St Clement
Because looking at art is hard work, it’s essential to fuel up on martinis, and we’ve found the perfect place to do just that. In celebration of Frieze Week, Hotel Il Pellicano is setting up shop at Bobbi’s Bar in St Clement to mark the occasion, bringing a touch of Tuscany to London. Aperitivo hour at Bobbi‘s will be a collaboration between Federico Morosi – who has spent more than fifteen years behind Hotel Il Pellicano’s famed Bar All’Aperto – and the Bobbi‘s bar team, serving up Teller Negronis, Bobbi‘s Martinis and everything in between.

Frieze x ICA Artists’ Film Programme
Frieze and the ICA have curated a programme of artists’ film and moving image to coincide with Frieze touching down in the capital. The ICA’s Upper Gallery will be home to a drop-in screening schedule, with a selection of works played on a continuous loop throughout the day. The artists featured include Biogal, Dimitra Charamandas, Nina Davies, Kamil Dossar, Aziz Hazara, Khaled Jarada, Julia Kater, Ali Kazma, Djofray Makumbu, Anastasia Sosunova and Yuyan Wang, offering an alternative way to experience art this Frieze Week.

View the full programme here. 

Issy Wood at the National Portrait Gallery
There are many exhibitions opening their doors this week, but Issy Wood’s slot at the National Portrait Gallery caught our eye. NPG’s Artist Focus invites three contemporary artists to explore portraiture’s shifting role in art, society, and culture, and Wood is first up. Eleven of the British-American painter’s self-portraits will grace the gallery walls, showcasing her intimate practice that focuses on themes of desire, consumer culture, and contemporary identity.

Issy Wood: Self-Portraits runs at the National Portrait Gallery until 28th February 2027, more info here. 

Sessions Arts Club returns to Frieze
Now in its third year at Frieze London, Sessions Arts Club, with founder Jonny Gent and his creative practice, Cabin Studio, is presenting Pilgrimage. A fitting addition to the most important week in the art world calendar, Sessions has created an immersive project bringing together food, art, music and design, inspired by Gent’s own sunset paintings from 2015 and Brian Bates’ 1983 spiritual classic, The Way of Wyrd. 

Minor Attractions
If you just can’t get enough of wandering around art fairs, Minor Attractions should be the next stop on your list. Now, in its fourth year, this edition is the fair’s biggest yet, with 70 international galleries taking up residence at The Newman Hotel in Fitzrovia and a calendar full of city-wide events blending contemporary art, cinema, music, and performance. This year, the fair collaborates with venues such as Soho Screening Rooms, The Horse Hospital, The Nickel Cinema, and Electrowerkz to merge visual art with London’s nightlife, cinema, and music scenes.

Find out more here. 

Susie Cave at DSM 
Dover Street Market’s Frieze Week schedule features an in-store signing with Susie Cave. The event marks the launch of the new Thames & Hudson photography book Susie, by Nick and Susie Cave, featuring decades of photographs captured by French photographer Dominique Issermann. ⁠

The signing will take place on Thursday 15th October from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm⁠ in Dover Street Market. 

PAD London
Taking over Berkeley Square this week, PAD is returning to the city for its eighteenth edition. A haven for design lovers, this year’s fair presents 67 prestigious exhibitors from eighteen countries, with twelve newcomers on the call sheet. Celebrating craft in all its forms, the showcase offers everything from museum-standard historical collectables to contemporary homeware from renowned makers across the globe.

MITSU teams up with StolenSpace
Shoreditch eatery MITSU has partnered with East London gallery StolenSpace for a six-week contemporary art takeover, kicking off during Frieze Week, of course. Since opening in April, the Japanese restaurant has cemented itself as a hot spot in the capital, while for the past twenty years StolenSpace has been bringing contemporary art to East London. A curated selection of Japanese and international artists’ work adorns the various dining spaces, featuring pieces from COOK, Kiseok Kim, Sean Sweeney, Shigeki Matsuyama and Rowdy.

A Composition curated by Jonathan Anderson
A Composition is an exhibition curated by Jonathan Anderson at JW Anderson’s Pimlico store, coinciding with Frieze London. At the centre of the showcase is a new series of 30 glass wind chimes by Cerith Wyn Evans, developed specifically for the exhibition, alongside a selection of the artist’s existing works. You can also expect to see works from Mary Stephenson, Akiko Hirai and Shawanda Corbett, traversing mediums of sculpture, craft and material.

A Composition is open to the public from 15–21 October, 10am–6pm.

Rita’s grab-and-go menu
If a sit-down dinner mid-browse isn’t quite your style, then fear not; Rita’s has got you covered. Returning to the fair for its ninth consecutive year, restaurant founders Gabriel Pryce and Missy Malik-Flynn will be offering up a menu of tacos and subs, including Carnitas, Tinga de Pollo and spiced Mushroom, alongside a selection of Mezcal Palomas and Citrus Highballs – forget the champagne!