London’s Social Scene Lights Up for Frieze’s VIPs and Wannabe-VIPs

Art is secondary to partying for more people than you might think at Frieze London—as at any major art fair. Anyone who is—or wants to be—a hot ticket rocks up on the VIP days to see art and to be seen seeing art, before hobnobbing at the evening’s gallery dinners, parties, and after-parties. The scene, like Art Basel Miami Beach in December, attracts its fair share of celebrities, as well. Bill Murray, Mickey Rourke, FKA Twigs, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Ford were just a few of household names to grace the fair’s aisles.

The week’s festivities kicked off on Tuesday evening with a bash co-hosted by Thaddaeus Ropac and Pace gallery at Mayfair’s Il Gattopardo, in celebration of the galleries’ joint show of Robert Longo. When I arrived, a monumental pile of wet umbrellas was stacked to the ceiling like some found object installation. In fact, it was a warning for the late comers: partygoers were already crammed in like sardines. Still, the risotto and ravioli, among other dishes, was excellent and plentiful and the waiters poured red, white, and sparkling wine like they’d get in trouble if we didn’t all leave sloshed. Bacchus would have approved: it was a decadent affair.

At the back of the restaurant, Longo, dressed in his signature black garb, held court alongside his glamorous squeeze, filmmaker Sophie Chahinian. Punters paid homage one-by-one and he gracefully accepted the praise. 

After Wednesday’s better-than-expected VIP preview day, spirits were high for dealers and collectors alike. At Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, the pop-up restaurant Pario had set up shop in the gallery’s in-house restaurant Pharmacy 2. The brainchild of young chefs Charles Bryant and George Brown, Pario served creative and spectacular farm-to-table fare. Our table went for the lamb, anchovy, salsa verde, croutons, and jus; triple cooked potatoes with aioli; fennel tarte tatin with crème fraîche; and the pièce de resistance—rare breed dry aged, bone-in ribeye, and marrow butter. The great hunk of meat was beyond delicious, cooked to perfection, and probably the best thing I’ve eaten in my life. 

“It feels very significant for us to be hosting a pop up in such an amazing and unique space, especially during the biggest art event in the UK,” Brown told ARTnews. “Having actually gone to art school in the area, the significance of this place certainly isn’t lost on me.”

The next stop of the night was to Soho’s famed Groucho Club—purchased by Manuela and Iwan Wirth in 2022—for a party thrown by British gallerist Timothy Taylor. Artist Sahara Longe, Puck columnist Marion Maneker, and Taylor’s son, Columbus, who is plying his trade at Lorcan O’Neill Gallery in Rome, chewed the fat with the mostly sophisticated crowd. As is expected during fair week, partygoers gossiped with loose lips and  a loud, crass collector did his best to be the center of attention. Few took any notice.

A brisk, 10-minute walk north through Soho, a young, slightly desperate-looking queue snaked its way from the entrance of the London EDITION hotel around the corner of the block. I could hear the music pumping up from the basement where galleries Ginny on Frederick (London), 56 Henry (New York), Rose Easton (London), and Wschód (Warsaw, New York) were joint hosting a shindig. The door policy had hit the one-in-one-out stage. Inside, it was packed to the rafters. By the bar, Isaac Simon, founder of South Parade gallery in Farringdon, was chatting with Wakefield-based artist Zoë Carlon, (whose solo show “Where and When You Are” is showing at the gallery). South Parade had sold well, the suited, bespectacled gallerist told me. 

Over on the dancefloor, Frederick Powell from Ginny on Frederick was drawing a crowd. “We are a really exciting group of galleries coming together to throw a really big party here in London,” Powell told ARTnews, adding proudly, that he’d had a good day at the fair. “I’m sold out!” 

Does Powell think Frieze London should be worried about Art Basel Paris? “I love London!” he said. 

By Friday, the VIPs were mostly long gone. Many had hopped on the Eurostar to Paris for the next stop on the art fair train. At the Dorchester Hotel that night, an art lender regaled me with reams of, sadly off the record, art world gossip. Then it was back to the Groucho Club, where NiCOLLETi gallery (London), Public Gallery (London), Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala), and nonprofit Delfina Foundation (London) were hosting a joint party. It was starting to feel like Groundhog Day, if each day became just a bit more washed up—a thinning crowd, free drinks, and the same old talk.

“We are always trying to build bridges between the rave scene and the art scene,” Camille Houze, the director of NiCOLETTi, told ARTnews. “We hosted this party on Friday as a celebration of Frieze. We are no longer focused on selling so now we can just enjoy ourselves.”