Skirting the Rules: Guerilla Exhibition Booted from Frieze After Showing Works in Artist’s Petticoat

An artist was booted from Frieze London during Wednesday’s invitation-only preview after she was caught illicitly hawking contemporary artworks at the prestigious fair. Security escorted Svetlana Grishina from the tent after, according to the artist, someone reported her for offering works that she had smuggled in inside her skirts.

The guerilla art show was part of the London-based Grishina’s project, Petticoat Gallery. The nomadic exhibition space, which she founded in 2025, is a homage to Russian artist Alexander Petrelli’s early ‘90s Palto (Overcoat) Gallery concept, which is still active in Moscow. 

Petrelli’s mobile gallery routinely exhibits small-format works pinned to the inside of an overcoat worn by the artist. At Art Basel Miami in 2018 it displayed works by art collective Gelatin and, over the years, has shown works by historically important Russian artists, including Moscow conceptualist Pavel Pepperstein.

In the past Grishina has shown her own work with Palto Gallery, and her project, which she calls a “femme spin-off”, has been given Petrelli’s blessing. In her version she shows works pinned to the inside of her tiered petticoats, which she lifts up in a playfully risqué gesture to open the exhibition for viewing. 

Before she was interrupted at Frieze, Grishina was showing some diminutive works on paper by Kenji Lim, priced at £200 each, watercolors on paper by Berlin-based artist Maximilian Rödel (£800), and oils on silk by Niovi Kafantari (£600). Small works by Rödel and Kafantari are “tricky to come by,” the artist-dealer said, as their galleries predominantly show larger works on canvas.

A few Frieze fair-goers were tempted by her wares, but, Grishina said, she did not manage to close a sale before security put a stop to the shenanigans. The artist shared a video on Instagram of herself being politely escorted from the venue in Regent’s Park, in which a bystander can be heard saying: “this is gonna go viral”. “Security approached me, told me that someone had reported me for selling art, and asked me to leave,” she said. 

The artist took her expulsion in her stride, laughing off the incident and leaving cheerfully. However, she does, she said, want to uncover the identity of the “petty informer” who dobbed her into Frieze security.

“I am hardly a commercial threat to Frieze,” she said, adding that she thinks the fair would appreciate the entertainment factor of the performance. “Collectors also appreciate original works by established artists available at accessible prices.”

Grishina plans to reach out to the exhibitor relations team at Frieze, to see whether she can secure official permission to bring her portable gallery next year. “If not, I’ll simply respect their rules and leave the artworks at home,” she said.

Next up, the artist is working on a group exhibition coinciding with next year’s edition of Art Basel, and is in conversation with several artists about future shows. “I’m actually in quite a good position to approach artists because they tend to appreciate the novelty and absurdity of the concept,” she said. “Artists are generally much more receptive to unconventional ideas than art fair management departments.”