Somebody has already been to Frieze. Their tote bags cover an entire hotel bed, a Frieze Art Fair one in the middle and, at the front, one that says I WOULD PREFER NOT TO. Down the corridor, a pair of legs in laddered fishnets and pink lace-up heels sticks out of a fur-covered dollhouse, its tiny rooms stocked with pill bottles and a miniature pack of cigarettes. In a wardrobe, a gloved hand reaches through red velvet for a martini.
That’s about the right introduction to Minor Attractions, which opened yesterday at The Newman in Fitzrovia. For its fourth edition, the fair has taken over the hotel’s first floor and 16 bedrooms. The galleries have made themselves at home; their art hangs in wardrobes, lies on beds and spills into bathrooms.
It’s Frieze week, so the art world is in town and mostly heading for Regent’s Park. Minor Attractions offers another way to spend the afternoon, one with smaller galleries and rooms you can actually sit down in. This year brings galleries from 15 countries, 38 of them new to the fair, including US spaces Benny’s Video and Interrobang 11232, alongside London names Cedric Bardawil, Hot Sheet and BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!.
Our favourite room turns the fair into a casino. Behind heavy navy curtains, a giant game-show wheel stands alone in the middle of the space. Round the corner, a Pleasure Gardens slot machine flashes cherries against checkerboard tiles, with deflated red foil balloons slumped at its feet as though the party ended hours ago.
Game-show wheel behind navy curtains
Max King, Installation view at Plicnik Space Initiative, Minor Attractions, 2026
Elsewhere, a claw machine is piled high with gold eggs, glinting under its own lights. A doctor’s bag sits open on a bed, another hand climbing out of it. In one bathroom, an old white telephone lies tangled in its cord on the tiles; down the corridor, a pink medicine cabinet trimmed in fur is stocked with prescription bottles.
Madison Kenny, Installation view at Preachers Valley, Minor Attractions, 2026
The corridors have their own work, too. If a man with a suitcase walks past you more than once, that’s ETA, a new durational piece by Amsterdam’s Trespassing. A traveller who never reaches his room, he circles the hotel until he’s too tired to continue. One bedroom has also become a screening room for the fair’s moving-image programme.
Yesterday’s opening party, THE HANG, took over Electrowerkz with a new club night curated by Ryan Lanji. Lucia Blayke, Jack Mudd and Joel Mignott played to a room of artists, collectors and people who’d clearly come straight from the fair.
On Wednesday 14 October, Embodied Labour, the fair’s sound and performance night, heads to STÜCK, with harp from Vivienne Griffin, spoken word and brass from Allen-Golder Carpenter, and Afromerm. If you’d rather scream, Deeper Into Movies is showing 976-EVIL (1988) at The Nickel. It’s Robert Englund’s directorial debut and a properly trashy VHS horror.
On Thursday 15 October, Film London’s FLAMIN Fellows take over the screening room at The Newman. Friday 16 October brings the closing party at The Horse Hospital, where Tokyo festival FLATLINE CITY 水平都市 puts on a night of butoh and queer nightlife.
The rooms stay open until Saturday 17 October, with doors closing at 6pm. There’s time to do Frieze in the morning and come here after.
Minor Attractions is also launching Major Futures this year, a fund for emerging artists and curators that visitors can donate to when they RSVP. Co-founder Jacob Barnes calls this edition the fair’s “most ambitious chapter – deliberately taking over everything from hotel bedrooms to rave floors.” You won’t want to miss this one.
Minor Attractions 2026
The Newman, 50 Newman Street, London W1T 3EB
Tue 13 – Fri 16 Oct, 12:00-20:00 · Sat 17 Oct, 12:00-18:00
minorattractions.com · @minor.attractions
Cold is a media partner of Minor Attractions 2026.
