With the 16th instalment of Frieze Art Fair just three months away, the organisers have revealed a fresh line-up of 160 participating galleries and a new theme of ‘Social Work’.
Social Work builds on last year’s rousing topic of Sex Work. Coinciding with the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK, it aims to highlight women artists of the 1980s who dared to confront the male-governed creative landscape, and began to imagine and forge a more fruitful future for their work.
A panel of leading female art historians and critics from UK institutions including Louisa Buck and Jennifer Higgie will choose a cluster of prominent female artists to dissect the themes of ‘identity, labour and visibility’. The panel will also shine the spotlight on artists who, by virtue of their ethnicity or gender, have slipped under the radar of recognition.
Standing from left to right: Frieze artistic director Jo Stella-Sawicka, Frieze editor Jennifer Higgie, Whitechapel Gallery chief curator Lydia Yee, Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick, Liverpool Biennial director Sally Tallant, and Frieze director Victoria Siddall. Seated, left to right: Iniva director Melanie Keen, Serpentine Galleries exhibitions curator Amira Gad, art critic Louisa Buck, Tate Modern curator international art Zoe Whitley, and DRAF director Fatos Ustek.
Diana Campbell Betancourt – artistic director of the Samdani Art Foundation and chief curator of the Dhaka Art Summit – has been recruited to mastermind Frieze Projects, a branch of the fair that extends beyond the traditional booth format. This will include the Frieze Live performances, installations and the Frieze Film Commission. Campbell Betancourt will work with Frieze Artist Award winner Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, who will create a much-anticipated performance that employs his distinctive ‘micro gestures’.
The 160 galleries hail from 31 countries, comprising fair veterans such as Hauser & Wirth and Salon 94, who have been presenting their most distinctive work at the fair since its inception in 2003, and younger galleries such as Blank and 47 Canal, alongside spirited newcomers including Xavier Hufkens and Galleri Nicolai Wallner.
Separately, Frieze Masters – now in its seventh year and with works spanning six millennia pre-2000 – will feature 130 international galleries. In the wake of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Louvre takeover, Old Master art has been thrust to the forefront of contemporary conversation, giving the fair more popular appeal than ever.
INFORMATION
Frieze London runs 4 – 7 October at Regent’s Park. For more information, visit the Frieze website
-
How We Host: Interior designer Heide Hendricks shows us how to throw the ultimate farmhouse fêteThe designer, one half of the American design firm Hendricks Churchill, delves into the art of entertaining – from pasta to playlists
-
Arbour House is a north London home that lies low but punches highArbour House by Andrei Saltykov is a low-lying Crouch End home with a striking roof structure that sets it apart
-
25 of the best beauty launches of 2025, from transformative skincare to offbeat scentsWallpaper* beauty editor Mary Cleary selects her beauty highlights of the year, spanning skincare, fragrance, hair and body care, make-up and wellness
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekFar from slowing down for the festive season, the Wallpaper* team is in full swing, hopping from events to openings this week. Sometimes work can feel like play – and we also had time for some festive cocktails and cinematic releases
-
The Barbican is undergoing a huge revamp. Here’s what we knowThe Barbican Centre is set to close in June 2028 for a year as part of a huge restoration plan to future-proof the brutalist Grade II-listed site
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s wet, windy and wintry and, this week, the Wallpaper* team craved moments of escape. We found it in memories of the Mediterranean, flavours of Mexico, and immersions in the worlds of music and art
-
Each mundane object tells a story at Pace’s tribute to the everydayIn a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* team had its finger on the pulse of architecture, interiors and fashion – while also scooping the latest on the Radiohead reunion and London’s buzziest pizza
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum celebrates an obsessive attention to detail‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’ pays tribute to the American film director’s career – expect props and puppets aplenty in this comprehensive London retrospective
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
