Make way for Mezcal
Visitors to Thaddaeus Ropac gallery during Frieze week can expect a caffeined, boozy boost thanks to the artist Tom Sachs, who has set up a working coffee and mezcal bar during his show A Good Shelf (until 20 December). “It is high-quality coffee. I have one a day but maybe today I need two. It is a whole ritual,” Sachs says. “The mezcal is 43% so it’s not that powerful. What’s dangerous is that it goes down easy, so watch out!” Sachs is showing a selection of 30 ceramics inspired by chawan (Japanese tea bowls), which are artfully displayed on shelves built from found materials. “Every morning before I let the electronic world come in, I touch clay between the subconscious state of dreams and the liminal state of waking up,” says Sachs, who usually wakes at 5am. “I try to exist for a few moments before language.” The rest of us mere mortals just settle for a cup of coffee at that time.
Art hits the headlines at satellite fair
The performance artist Artist Taxi Driver plastered one-liners over the UK newspaper Daily Mail
One of the art world’s most entertaining and likeable provocateurs, Artist Taxi Driver, is showing racy works at Minor Attractions, an art-selling event held in the Mandrake hotel in Fitzrovia. The taxi man is none other than Mark McGowan, a minicab driver whose performance art pieces are part of art world legend—who else would push a monkey nut along a road for seven miles in protest at student loans? McGowan’s subverted Daily Mail works are turning heads, with headlines plastered in white across the pages. “I’m not sure why I’m here, I might pack up soon,” McGowan said when asked about taking part in Minor Attractions. The dour art star is nonetheless a magnet, drawing in visitors savouring the headlines.
Ryan Gander lets the mice do the talking
Animatronic mice poke their heads out of walls and wax poetic, acting as alter egos for Ryan Gander
Ryan Gander is apparently not happy with the current state of art. I’ve Fallen Foul of My Desire is the disconsolate title of his new solo show at Camden Arts Projects, where he has also unveiled the fourth in his series of disconcertingly lifelike animatronic mice that he describes as “little moralistic fable making critters”. The mice poke their heads out of holes in gallery walls, spouting forth philosophical musings in the voice of the artist’s daughter. According to Gander, these chatty rodents—three of which currently reside in François Pinault’s galleries in Paris and Venice—act as alter egos, “saying the things I really think—a bit like therapy”. Past discourses include a treatise on growth and an adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator (1940). So, what does this latest oracle reveal? “This one is about how shit art has become, how we’ve lost our way and champion politics and identity over creativity,” Gander says. “Art is not about art any more, it’s just about the people that make it.” Seems like he has arrived at his elder art world statesman phase. Let’s hope he feels better having had a bit of a vent.
Supernatural substances for sale
Extraction (2025) by the painter Mathew Weir Courtesy of Mathew Weir
Those with an interest in the afterlife should head to the Gallery of Everything in London, which is showing works depicting ectoplasm, the sticky substance supposedly exuded during contact with the spirit world (Ectoplasmix, until 30 November). Plasma oozes from all sorts of orifices in featured works by artists such as the Czech palaeontologist František Jaroslav Pecka and the UK painter Mathew Weir (look out also for striking photographs by Susan Hiller). Crowds flocked to the gallery earlier this week to ponder on the supernatural substance in all its arty forms, savouring a performance by a pair of Montenegro poets. The gallery founder James Brett was keen to point out some real ectoplasm hanging in the gallery window. “That’s from my mum who tried to contact my lovely father who passed away some years ago at the age of 88,” he said. He was joking (we hope).
The Secret Gallerist: anonymous reports from behind the scenes at the fair
Another year, another art fair cycle. The travelling circus has once again landed in Regent’s Park—and this time, it’s personal.
London has had a rocky few years, having taken an unscheduled pit stop in limbo post-Brexit and Covid. Fast forward to 2025, the public messaging seems to be: “London is back, baby!” My source? Every art world news outlet publishing ludicrously similar articles about London’s booming commercial scene, with emerging spaces opening at a rate of knots, and established gallerists betting big on this fine city via upgrades to their property portfolios.
Whether this renewed focus on London translates into a dynamic and upbeat fair remains to be seen, but the mood on the ground during the installation days was…drumroll please…lukewarm at best. Already, I have spied in the first hang a few repeat appearances from artworks debuted (and presumably unsold) earlier this year at Art Basel (Basel). No doubt the real gems are being saved for next week’s Art Basel Paris—I am certainly guilty of this. At least I have the self-respect to wait until the weekend here to wheel out inventory gathering dust in the cupboard…
However, to all my fellow gallerists—hang in there! With the resignation of another French prime minister after just 26 days in the job, who knows, perhaps Le France will falter and the Parisian chokehold on Frieze will loosen. Although having said that, don’t you just love the Grand Palais?
