Late Nights, Logistical Nightmares And Loewe Wedges: What It Actually Takes To Exhibit At Frieze London

January

Frieze proposal submitted. A 3D render of our imagined booth is sent to the Frieze committee for review nine months in advance. Every year, every gallery goes through the application process. We will be showing brand new works made for the fair; paintings, textile works and bronze sculptures by artists Niklas Asker, Apollinaria Broche, Sebastián Espejo, Aya Higuchi, Nour Jaouda, Oliver Osborne and Jason Thompson.

March

Acceptance email received! This will be our ninth time exhibiting at the fair since 2017 and our biggest booth yet. A booth at Frieze costs approximately the same as a year’s rent in Bloomsbury, but thousands of people will see it, so it’s all worth it.

April

Hotel booked. Albeit a “home” fair, I still stay at Kettner’s for the entirety of Frieze week. I need to ensure there is zero chance of my small children smearing my shoulders, sick bugs, broken down cars etc. I do not want to be inconvenienced by daily life in any way. Friends/family/nursery beware: chat groups will be silenced.

1 September

Tanned and sandy from summer holidays, we’re back at the office and trying to remember what we planned nine months ago… (Wait, what did we say we’d do? Is that even possible?) Plenty of Frieze admin emails to get back to – what flooring do we want, exactly where do we want our sockets, how many lights do we need? Extras lights cost about £400 each. (We used to joke you can always tell who’s doing well by how brightly lit their booth is.)

The most interesting job on the to-do list? Who do we want to invite to the Collectors’ Dinner, which is when the fair closes two hours early and a giant table is set up amongst the booths for a three-course meal and a performance that goes well into the night. Each gallery has just one ticket for the owner and one guest only. You need to think carefully about who you bring – it’s a seating gamble!

10 September

Busy coordinating shipping from various countries. An astonishingly large part of the job. Coaxing the artists gently, then not so gently, then downright firmly to please just finish their exquisite pieces for their shipping deadlines. Gallerists need a chance to get images taken of the artworks and sent out to try and sell them before the fair. Bear in mind, at this point your investment is relying on objects you’ve likely never seen. Indeed, no one has, not even the artist – a surprising number of works are still being made just weeks before the fair.

15 September

Final floor plan from the fair received and, shock horror, booth is three whole metres bigger than our actual gallery. We will need running trainers! This year we have built a small room within the booth, a viewing room, which is actually a dream come true (mainly because it will double up as a place to hide from relentless socialising and do some breathwork/scoff a sandwich).

Late September

Adding VIPs and their arrival times – the first two days are VIP days, and ideally, the tents are full of people with taste, budgets and manners. By the weekend, the fair has opened up to a much wider audience of friends, families and art enthusiasts. That’s when you’re most likely to hear the dreaded sound of an artwork shattering, as a rucksack knocks a piece to the ground, followed by a collective intake of breath from everyone within earshot.

Early October

Artworks have arrived in the gallery, which is a relief. Sometimes they arrive the night before, if at all – there have indeed been empty booths before. It’s rare, but I’ve seen it at other fairs. HM Revenue & Customs does not care that it’s Frieze week.

Still need to freshen up the wardrobe – Frieze week clothes have to work hard, from the pre-fair awards ceremony breakfast, to events at unholy hours at unholy locations. My old faithful Loewe wedges, silver Bottega bag and a new black wool jumper is a good place to start. I won’t even attempt to try to be as well-dressed as my clients, plus, I sell better when I don’t have blisters.

12 October

Artworks installed without too much drama. Bumped into artist Gray Wielebinski as he was installing a series of beautifully crafted, site-specific olfactory interventions in the toilets. On leaving at 7pm, Regent’s Park had inexplicably been locked, so we had to vault the fence, along with a visiting international gallerist who apparently preferred risking having his balls spiked than accept a hand down!

Eve of opening

Received an exciting late night call from Alona Pardo, head of the Arts Council Collection, with news that made my arm hairs stand on end: Oliver Osborne’s work in our booth has been chosen to be acquired by the Arts Council collection via their Frieze Fund Prize! They will announce this and their other acquisitions in the morning press conference.

14 October

Tannoy sounds: “Frieze Art Fair 2026 is now open!” Nine months of planning, hundreds of emails, thousands of pounds, and we’re off! Tense 30 mins as people funnel into the aisles, some barely able to contain their run to see the art they want in person. The best few hours, arguably of the year – definitely this year – go by in a blur. Concentrating hard to recognise everyone, do maths in my head and keep track of what’s on hold for who and how long for. At some point someone from the fair delivers a box of food and a bottle of Ruinart Champagne, and I sit down, take a big swig and do some totting up.

Dinner at Royal China, always great and many familiar faces sharing a lazy Susan. First night party is the Ginny on Frederik and Arcadia Missas party, both galleries and colleagues I love, in the basement of the Edition Hotel. A suitably debauched evening to kick things off.

The rest of the week should roll by in all too familiar, knackering, gorgeous fashion, and by Sunday evening I’ll hopefully be as happy and exhausted as one could hope to be. No time for the art world to catch its breath, of course, as everyone decamps to Paris for Art Basel next week. And so it goes on...