Become a Vogue Business Member to receive unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our Beauty and TikTok Trend Trackers, Member-only newsletters and exclusive event invitations.
Over the next week, London will come alive around a true highlight of its cultural calendar: Frieze. The focal points, of course, will be the twin fairs — Frieze London, with its focus on contemporary art, and Frieze Masters, which is dedicated to exploring the relationships between the historical and the contemporary — staged at opposite ends of Regent’s Park. Frieze’s impact, however, is felt far beyond its North London home. For close to a quarter of a century, the annual pilgrimage of monied collectors, gallerists, curators, institutional directors and the other art world cognoscenti that it prompts has given cause for a head-spinning array of parallel exhibition openings, cultural festivals, ritzy brand activations and A-list star-pulling events.
This year is no exception — though, in certain respects, it is. While London’s status as a global hub for arts and culture is essentially irrefutable, it’s a strange time for the sector. This year’s Frieze week is prefaced by headlines touting the declining value of the British art market, vindicated by eyebrow-raising plummets in the sales figures of some of its biggest commercial galleries. At the same time, however, buoyancy and dynamism remain intact, with other major galleries and private institutions announcing openings and expansions, and scene-steering voices professing that the city’s cutting edge is the sharpest it’s been in decades.
Further consolidating an air of cautious optimism around 2025’s edition are the many ambitious brand activations taking place both within and parallel to the fair. Bucking the relative lull in such activities post-pandemic, their showing up is being read as a testament to London’s enduring cachet and appeal.
Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Frieze London, which runs from 15 to 19 October.
An uncertain climate
Clouds have lingered over London for a little while now — and we aren’t talking about the weather. “We’re now in the third year of a down market, still defined by a sharp drop in top-end sales, and softer decline at most other price points,” explains Kabir Jhala, art market editor at The Art Newspaper. “Much of the business is feeling the effects of more sober spending. It’s not that no one’s buying, rather that collectors are buying less than before and trophy works are being kept off the market if their owners can.” The effects of this conservatism are compounded by the spiralling operational costs faced by galleries, irrespective of their positionings.
Granted, this is hardly unique to the British market. According to the 2025 Art Basel UBS Art Market report, sales in the global art market fell 12 per cent in 2024, with sales in the UK alone down 5 per cent year-on-year. A particularly British factor, of course, is the ongoing impact of Brexit — and the newly reported exodus of international wealth from London in response to the abolition of non-dom tax status. It’s against this backdrop that the closure of galleries like Marlborough Gallery and Almine Rech, as well as one of Mayfair’s flagship blue chips, Hauser Wirth, with the UK business reporting a pre-tax profit drop of close to 90 per cent are being perceived by some as canary-in-the-cage moments.
By some, sure, but not by all. Despite the gloom, there seems to be cause for optimism. While the UK market may have shrunk 15 per cent from its pre-pandemic (2019) size, it is still 5 per cent above its 2020 value. This year, Britain also regained its status as the world’s second-largest art market, due to poor sales performances in China, representing an 18 per cent slice of the global pie (though this figure is substantially less than in 2006, for instance, when the UK hosted more than a quarter of global art transactions).
There’s a general consensus on the need to look beyond the figures to gain a real sense of the vibe in London’s art sector. For all the news of major closures, there have also been announcements of significant expansions and openings — both of commercial galleries and private institutions. Stuart Shave’s Modern Art, Maureen Paley and Sadie Coles are among the former, opening ambitious spaces in Central and East London’s most prestigious gallery districts, which institutions like Ibraaz and Yan Du Projects have opened the doors to via their Fitzrovia spaces, with directional programming focusing on art from the Global South and East Asia, respectively.
The city is also home to a new generation of risk-taking independent galleries making waves within and beyond the city. “There’s a burgeoning grassroots spirit in London that feels unparalleled by anything we’ve seen in recent history,” says Edward Gillman, director of Chisenhale Gallery, an East London institution known for incubating a number of today’s household contemporary artists. “The scene is continuing to see a lot of young commercial galleries opening, which are working with and supporting a new generation of artists from the city in particular, as well as further afield. There are new independent project spaces popping up again, a movement that hadn’t happened in scale for years.”
“The city’s institutional landscape has also undergone massive change, with most institutional directors being relatively new in post,” Gillman says, himself among them. “It feels like the sands are shifting, and while there’s a lot at stake economically and politically, there’s a tonne of potential and new ideas circulating. Despite challenges, there’s a feeling of possibility — people are investing time in building new infrastructure — galleries, foundations, networks and relationships.”
The fairs
“London’s energy and creativity remain undeniable,” says Frieze London director Eva Langret, underscoring the recent expansions, as well as the ambition of the capital’s next gen. According to Langret, this amounts to “a clear signal of ongoing international investment in the city’s unmatched creativity and expertise, even in a measured art market”.
But how is that making itself felt within the fairs themselves? At Frieze London, there’s a distinct sense of leaning into the buzz around the young blood participating. Last year’s tent redesign — which saw Focus, the Stone Island-sponsored section of the fair dedicated to presentations by emerging galleries like London-based Nicoletti and New York-based King’s Leap, moved to the front of the tent — remains intact. “I think it shows how important the section is,” says Freddie Powell of Ginny on Frederick, who’ll be presenting a solo booth of installation works by recent Royal Academy graduate Alex Margo Arden. “It feels like a major draw for collectors who visit the fair. It’s also one of the best sections for emerging galleries at any fair, along with Statements and Emergence at Art Basel. It’s not just the ‘emerging’ section, but a place where some of the most interesting, important and risk-taking work at the fair happens.”
Among the 168 gallery booths found across the fair, some of the standout moments include Gathering’s solo presentation by Christelle Oyiri — who recently closed a solo show at Tate Modern, opened another at Champ Lacombe in Bloomsbury, and figured in the just-dropped campaign for Knwls’s collaboration with Nike; Ebun Sodipo’s collages exploring the nuances of the Black transfeminine experience, on show at Soft Opening; Gagosian’s presentation of new works by Lauren Halsey; and Echoes in the Present, a section of the fair exploring connections between artists from Brazil, Africa and their diasporas.
Over at Frieze Masters, crowds will no doubt be drawn by Geneva-based Salomon Lilian’s presentation of a masterwork by Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens — not to mention the Ptolemaic quartzite relief on show at London-based antiquities specialist Art Ancient. With 137 booths, however, a unanimously tipped highlight will be Pace Gallery’s solo presentation of Peter Hujar’s portraits of New York’s drag and theatre scene in the ’70s.
The brand activations
While Freize’s fashion and luxury scene may not feel quite as pronounced as that of its European counterparts, there’s still a significant uptick in the presence of major players, both within and beyond the main tents. “Brands are back,” Jhala says. “The appeal of art to fashion and other luxury markets is well proven by now. Art gives intellectual heft and cultural depth to other fields, and in return is vivified and made relevant and commercially viable by attaching itself to fashion.”
“At Frieze London, we’re collaborating with partners across fashion and luxury — from Tiffany Co supporting Artist-to-Artist for the first time, to Stone Island supporting our Focus galleries, to Loewe Perfumes joining our Collector’s Dinner — reinforcing the fair as a vital platform and standout moment on the international calendar,” Langret adds. “It’s also an opportunity to showcase the diversity of London’s art ecosystem, where voices from across the globe bring fresh perspectives and energy.”
Frieze London’s partnership with Tiffany Co on its Artist-to-Artist sector — which hosts solo presentations by emerging artists nominated by their established peers — is a particularly noteworthy addition, marking the start of a relationship between one of the world’s most significant commercial art platforms and one of the largest jewellery brands. “Tiffany Co is honoured to partner with Frieze, one of today’s most influential platforms for contemporary art and a natural complement to our cultural heritage dating back to 1837,” says Christopher Young, VP and creative director of Tiffany Patrimony. “Such projects demonstrate how art is always at the core of Tiffany’s identity. Our enduring ability to translate nature and creativity through an artistic lens continues to propel Tiffany’s ethos forward, ensuring that art will always be inseparable from our existence.”
There’s plenty of sparkle over at Frieze Masters, too, with De Beers coming on board as a partner for the first time, presenting Voyage Through the Diamond Realm, “an immersive installation tracing the cosmic and earthly journeys of natural diamonds”, per the brand. Elsewhere, British menswear brand Dunhill’s talks programme returns with panel discussions including the likes of Christopher Rothko, Tracey Emin, Nicholas Cullinan and Antony Gormley.
Beyond the tents
And that’s just within the fair, with plenty more taking place beyond. “Frieze has always been a springboard for broader cultural happenings in London, and I think it’s exciting that it continues to play that role,” says Charlene Prempeh, founder of arts consultancy A Vibe Called Tech. “[The fair] spills out into all areas of the city; there’s a palpable cultural buzz throughout the week.”
In King’s Cross, the newly renovated Town Hall will play host to Prada Mode, an ephemeral multi-day event centred on an original commission by Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist duo Elmgreen Dragset — perhaps most famous for Prada Marfa, their 2005 sculpture of a Prada boutique permanently installed in the Texan desert. For the 13th edition of the Milanese house’s travelling cultural salon, guests will be able to attend talks, watch films and immerse themselves within The Audience, a surreal cinema installation created by the artists.
In Mayfair, luxury shopping and lifestyle hotspot Mount Street will play host to the Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival, which returns for its second consecutive year. Featuring book clubs, private tours of nearby auction houses and interdisciplinary conversations, the event offers an open-access, rather more calm foil to the frenzy of the main tents. “Last year confirmed that audiences crave accessible cultural experiences during Frieze week — something they can drop into spontaneously,” says Joanna Lea, Mayfair retail director at property group Grosvenor. “There’s appetite for both the blockbuster Frieze experience and more intimate encounters, with Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival offering the latter.”
It is arguably on account of Frieze week that autumn is one of the real boon times for London’s art scene, and this year is no exception, with the season bringing an electrifying array of exhibitions. Major openings include Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Peter Doig’s respective solo shows at the Serpentine Gallery’s two locations; Kerry James Marshall’s survey at the Royal Academy of Arts; a landmark show exploring the canon of Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern (which will also unveil its latest Turbine Hall commission by Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara this week); Joy Gregory and Candice Lin’s solo shows at Whitechapel Gallery; and Camden Art Centre’s show of video works by Karimah Ashadu, winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Rounding out the week with a bang will be “the most hyped social event we’ve seen in London for years”, Prempeh says. Anecdotally billed as the UK’s answer to the Met Gala, the inaugural British Museum Ball is the latest event attempting to emulate the fundraising model established by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Co-chaired by British Museum director Dr Nicholas Cullinan, alongside Indian billionaire heiress and arts philanthropist Isha Ambani, the ball will take place at the close of the institution’s current exhibition, Ancient India: Living Traditions. With an organising committee that includes the likes of Naomi Campbell, Edward Enninful, Alexa Chung and Miuccia Prada — and the town abuzz with rumours of major celebrity attendance — it’ll certainly be a night worth watching.
The takeaway
While Britain’s art market may not be in its best health, the atmosphere and energy around this year’s Frieze remains spirited — in large part because of its value as a cultural (as much as a commercial) forum. “The difference between Frieze London and other fairs is that people who may not understand — or even care about — the mechanics of the commercial art world know about it and want to go,” says Prempeh. “My six-year-old knows that Frieze is on and he’s already planning an outfit.”
Even among those that do have vested interests in the fair’s — and market’s — commercial state of affairs, a surprising buoyancy prevails. “I think we have to stay optimistic,” says Powell. “London’s scene has always been cyclical, but right now it feels like there’s a collective sense of wanting to make things happen here, rather than waiting to see what might go wrong next.” If the abundance of goodwill on show translates to sales, in the art world at least, London just might be back.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
Correction: This article was updated to correct the location of the Prada Mode event in London. It was also updated to specify that Hauser Wirth figures were specific to the UK business. (14/10/25).
Are art fairs the next hotspot for lifestyle retail?
