In celebration of Frieze Week, Honey and Smoke Grill House, from chef-owners Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, are delighted to continue their collaboration with October Gallery with an exhibition of striking works by LR Vandy and Kenji Yoshida. The restaurant will serve a delicious Defrost menu throughout the month of October to mark Frieze London which falls 9th to 13th October this year. This vibrant exhibition opens 24th September ahead of Frieze London and continues until 2nd November and is situated on Great Portland Street moments from the art fair in Regent’s Park. October Gallery will present works by Aubrey Williams for the first time at this year’s edition of Frieze Masters.

The Defrost menu will be inspired by the art direction of the exhibition, with a skilful reference to ideas of shared cultural traditions, the ritual of dining together, and the combination of heritage and modernity in both food and art. Guests are invited to view the artwork as they share food and ideas in the relaxed environment of Honey and Smoke.

LR Vandy presents dynamic sculptural works on the ground floor of the restaurant. Vandy transforms model boat hulls into ‘masks’, animating them with various materials, including fishing floats, porcupine quills and acupuncture needles. While simultaneously creating a vibrant and arresting body of work, Vandy’s Hulls allude to the transportation of migrants as commodities. As masks they present a transformation of identity, drawing upon the tradition of talismans, charms and amulets.

In 2023, the artist installed a large-scale 5-metre-high rope sculpture to transform the Liverpool dockland in connection with the International Slavery Museum and National Museums Liverpool. Titled Dancing in Time, the ties that bind us, this monumental work evokes a dancing female figure and is an acknowledgement of how people throughout time have used dance to break free from oppressive systems. LR Vandy’s recent solo exhibition Twist at October Gallery, highlighted her new series of dancing female rope sculptures, as well as new Hulls that incorporate rope. Both series of works reference the historic importance of rope with its maritime and slave-trade connections.

Mesmerising works on paper and canvas by Kenji Yoshida (1924 – 2009) are presented in the downstairs area of the restaurant. Born in Ikeda City (part of present-day Osaka), Japan, Yoshida first studied art under Hayashi Kiyoshi before his path of artistic development was unavoidably interrupted by war. Selected for training as a kamikaze pilot, Yoshida was extremely lucky to survive, though many of his friends did not. Yoshida returned to his art where his poignant experiences lend to his message of peace. Employing an elliptical language of coloured forms often rendered in silver and gold leaf, Yoshida invites the viewer to consider the fundamental forces of life and meditate upon that essential unity that binds us all together. In 1993, the individual qualities of Yoshida’s work were recognised when he was honoured as the first living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum. His final exhibition, in 2008, was in the main hall of UNESCO in the centre of Paris – the city that reciprocated his choice in making it his home by adopting him as one of her own artists and providing him with a studio for life.

The collaboration has been designed by October Gallery’s Artistic Director Elisabeth Lalouschek, Curator Eleri Fanshawe, and Chefs Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, the couple behind Honey and Smoke Grill House.

"October Gallery are delighted to continue our collaboration with esteemed restaurant Honey and Smoke. The success of last year's edition highlighted that this project is truly a meeting of minds and hearts. In honour of Frieze week, this new exhibition of works by artists LR Vandy and Kenji Yoshida, will in turn inspire the creativity of Honey and Smoke's Defrost menu. As ever, the restaurant provides a lively setting for people to come together and enjoy the excitement and relational possibilities of art and food,” says Eleri Fanshawe.

Itamar Srulovich adds, “After the huge success of last year’s collaboration, we are so excited to join forces again with October Gallery for a celebration of art, food, hospitality and culture. Sarit and I have long been fans of LR Vandy’s iconic hulls, and we fell instantly in love with the dreamy surfaces of Kenji Yoshida. We cannot wait to see how the works transform the space of our beloved Honey and smoke, and serve our bespoke, seasonal menu to a crowd of art lovers.”