This is the busiest week in the art calendar as Frieze and plenty of other art fairs roll into town. I’ll be running around trying to cover them all and paid subscribers will get access to all my thoughts on them. This week I have:
Thanks as always for keeping tabs on me, and have a great week ahead.
A paid subscription to Londonist Urban Palette costs £5 a month or £45 a year. If you’re enjoying the newsletter, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to keep it going - plus you’ll get regular bonus newsletters, with more interviews, reviews, insights and stories I’m excited about from the London visual arts world.
Tab’s World
My latest articles and events for your reading pleasure.
For Frieze week I have a special top 6 of exhibitions to see, bringing together the best of what’s on in London’s galleries.
My first article for the new platform Spaghetti Boost is titled ‘How I learned to stop worrying and embrace immersive art experiences’. I’d love to know what you think about this topic.
Our latest podcast episode is all about Frieze week as I explain what it is, why it matters and how to get involved. Listen and subscribe to The Good, The Bad and The Arty.
You only have until midnight on Monday to vote for your favourite sculpture in this year’s Marsh awards shortlist. I’m part of the judging panel that picks the overall winner but the people’s favourite also gets recognised at the awards ceremony.
Plus, catch up on editions of my new bonus newsletter for paid subscribers, including:
My September Diary of a London Art Critic
My August / September Diary of a London Art Critic
My late August Diary of a London Art Critic
Click below to see all the subscription options, and a big thank you to everybody who’s supporting the newsletter already - couldn’t do it without you!
Tab’s Weeks Ahead
Highlighting my top events for the weeks ahead. Let me know if you'd like to join me!
My Saturday (12 October, 11am-5pm) will probably find me hitting up the art fairs I haven’t seen yet, most likely Frieze Masters (ticketed, but I may have a plus one in case you want to join), followed by Emily Allchurch’s exhibition at James Freeman Gallery (free). All are welcome to join me, just drop me a line (or DM me on Substack) and I'll share the full itinerary with you so you can drop in at any point throughout the day.
Looking further ahead I’ll be moderating a talk with the artists at J/M Gallery in Notting Hill on 1 November, 6-8.30pm (for the pictured exhibition). Make sure you add it to your diaries.
The Wider Arts
Here are my top picks of culture that may be enjoyed from the comfort of your home. Paid subscribers have access to my full back catalogue of recommendations.
SCIENCE BOOK: Entangled Life by Melvin Sheldrake is a mind-blowing read - I now know so much about fungi, the mycelial network and the Wood Wide Web. This book is jam-packed with facts about fungi's role in current ecosystems, how life has evolved on Earth and their potential future uses. If you want more reads about the natural world I recommend An Immense World by Ed Yong. The links go through to my online bookshop and you can follow me on Goodreads here.
HEISTS ON SCREEN: Kaleidoscope is a heist series with a clever concept - you can watch all the episodes in any order and Netflix will present it to you in a random order as well, though of course you can choose your own and watch it chronologically if you want to. It has plenty of twists and will have you guessing who makes it out alive - on Netflix. In a less serious heist movie, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck have good chemistry as incompetent criminals in The Instigators, even if the plot isn’t quite as good. On Apple TV.
POLITICAL PROGRAMMES: The Rest is Politics is a podcast hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart and they discuss the big political stories each week. Given they used to be in opposing parties it ensures we see both sides of the picture and provides great takes on current events. On all podcast platforms and YouTube. Switching to TV I also enjoyed Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution, looking back on the highs and lows of their Labour leadership in a five-part series. On iPlayer.
Articles I’m Reading
Interesting stories that I recommend, largely from beyond the art world. If you fancy reading offline at another time, I recommend the app Pocket.
This is a selection of articles I found thought-provoking in one way or another; opinions expressed in the articles don’t necessarily reflect my views or those of Londonist. Paid subscribers have access to my full back catalogue of recommendations.
FRIENDSHIP: Missing a friend from the past? You should reach out, says Vox (10 minutes), Esquire gives a personal account of I Gave Myself a Month to Make One New Friend. How Hard Could That Be? (19 minutes) and Business Insider says the US is facing a ‘fringe friend’ crisis (12 minutes) - though I think it applies to other countries too. Bustle looks at When Your Friend Has Money And You Don’t (9 minutes) - a situation I have to navigate occasionally - and along similar lines, Outside writes I’m Broke, But My Friends Keep Planning Expensive Group Vacations (4 minutes). Inc sets out 10 Things Incredibly Likeable People Never, Ever Do (and Why You Love Them for It) (5 minutes) and 3 Simple Things That Will Make You the Most Interesting Person in Any Conversation (2 minutes). Switching to the negative side, Self highlights 5 Signs That You’re in a One-Sided Friendship (5 minutes) - I’ve had to cull a few of these people, and asks Why Does Being Excluded From a Clique as an Adult Sting So Badly? (6 minutes). Stylist discusses The Rise of the Social Vampire, and How to Handle the One in Your Life (5 minutes), How to Identify the 4 Subtle Steps a Narcissist Takes Before Invading Your Life (4 minutes) and 4 Reasons Why We Find Some People So Inexplicably Annoying, According to Science (5 minutes). Lifehacker sets out How Not to Care When People Don’t Like You (9 minutes), and Stylist shows us How to Consciously Uncouple From a Friend, No Ghosting Required (6 minutes). To show the true power of friends, Vox reports on How a ragtag band of internet friends became the best at forecasting world events (16 minutes)
DRUGS: Fentanyl, the portrait of a mass murderer is a powerful 40-minute read from El Pais about the ravaging effect the drug is having in the US and Reuters does a detailed investigation on how easy it is to make. In Pain and Suffering Baffler shows how the opioid crisis has also had a negative knock-on effect in pain management (16 minutes). Switching to positive news on drugs, Undark sets this out in From Toad Toxin to Medicine: The Promise of 5-MeO-DMT (13 minutes) and BBC reports on How a Dose of MDMA Transformed a White Supremacist (13 minutes). The Guardian writes ‘Natty or not?’: how steroids got big in an eye-opening 24-minute read around gym culture, Mental Floss asks Why Do People Toss Shoes Over Power Lines? (2 minutes), and The Guardian asks - The cocaine kingpin’s wildest legacy: what can be done with Pablo Escobar’s marauding hippos? (20 minutes).
BOARD GAMES: Business Insider takes us inside the dark heart of modern chess (13 minutes) and Slate shows us these games can be Board but Not Boring as it looks into board game innovation (11 minutes). I’ve shared this one before but it’s worth re-sharing as The Marshall Projects writes about When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row, and Dungeons & Dragons took off inside prison (21 minutes).