Frieze Week Survival Guide 2026
It’s London art week’s centre of gravity but to help you find something to see that isn’t in a tent, or a hotel, or a some other atmospheric hired venue, this article presents short reviews of shows that have already opened that we’ve actually seen in person. Helpfully sorted by location, although geography pedants will probably quibble with the clusters.
To help you know what you can skip and what’s not to miss, each entry has been given a rating:
👍🏻👍🏻 ROUNDUP-WORTHY — See it if you can!
👍🏻 IF YOU’RE IN THE AREA — Worth seeing, but don’t go out of your way.
👎🏻 NOPE — You can give these shows a skip.
‼️ ← Last chance. Show closes soon!
If you’re new or need a refresh: here’s an explanation of the ratings categories.
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Happy arting, and enjoy Frieze Week (and weekends)!
NORTH
Camden, Kentish Town, Islington, Finsbury, Lisson Grove, Stoke Newington, Walthamstow, etc.
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👍🏻👍🏻 Regent’s Park - Frieze Sculpture (Regent’s Park) — With only 11 works this might be the smallest iteration yet, but it’s possibly one of the best. Every work is visually distinct and given more than enough space to be appreciated in its surroundings without you getting too easily distracted by the next one on the map. I’ve loaded 5 images in my Outdoor Sculpture Trails Guide but you’re gonna have to visit in person to see the rest. And you should! 🗓️ Until 01 Nov
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👍🏻👍🏻 Cecil Sharp House - Melvyn Robinson (Camden Town) — I didn’t know what to expect of an art exhibit staged inside the home of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, but I found myself utterly charmed by the paired sets of whimsical paintings and poems inspired by hill figures such as the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset and the Uffington White Horse in Berkshire. 🗓️ Until 11 Jan 2027
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👍🏻👍🏻 Wellcome Collection - The Coming of Age (Euston / Euston Sq) — Modern science is striving to make getting old almost as inevitable as death and taxes, but modern technology means it’s a lot more enjoyable than it used to be. From historical takes about the elderly to contemporary views on what being old means today, this highly engaging (and free!) exhibition about aging will make you think twice about however many years you have left. 🗓️ Until 29 Nov
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👍🏻👍🏻 New Art Projects - Ian Dawson (Angel) — They shimmer and draw you in with their meticulous details and eye catching visuals but this artist’s literal plastic patchwork sculptures haven’t just continued to grow bigger and more ambitious… they’re redefining how 3D printing can be used as an artistic medium. 🗓️ Until 31 Oct
CENTRAL
Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Mayfair, Soho, St. James’
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👍🏻 Canopy Collections - Jonathan Baldock (Bloomsbury) — Known for ambitious larger-than-life installations, this selection of small and intimate pieces is the perfect opportunity for ceramics fans and wealthy collectors to get an up-close appreciation of the quality and amusement the artist infuses into his work. 🗓️ Until 20 Nov
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👍🏻 Wallace Collection — Winston Churchill (Marylebone) — Picasso said “The man who painted this could earn a good living as an artist if he did not have something else to do” and my response is “but without Churchill’s signature on them they’d have been lost to history”. He was surprisingly talented and incredibly prolific, painting ~500 works in his lifetime, but only his speeches were unforgettable. 🗓️ Until 29 Nov (£ Ticketed)
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👍🏻👍🏻 Annely Juda Fine Art - Nicola Turner (Mayfair) — Ambitious artists need equally ambitious galleries to encourage their ideas to run wild, all the way up and over the walls, even through to the exterior facade of the Grade II Georgian Townhouse where tentacle-like extensions appear to be spreading like ivy. It’s a bit silly and definitely looks sinister, but overall? Spectacular. 🗓️ Until 07 Nov
👎🏻 David Zwirner (Mayfair) — Louis Fratino paints “the glorious and the everyday” but it’s a shame everyone looks so damned depressed, even the men in gratuitous sex scenes with a larger than average penis. Speaking of impressive letdowns, the supersized, photo realistic oil paintings by Daichi Takagi will blow your mind… for about three seconds. That’s exactly how long two other visitors lasted after they said “wow!” and then immediately withdrew from the room. 🗓️ Until 31 Oct
👍🏻 Gallery Rosenfeld - Ndidi Emefiele (Mayfair) — Incorporating compact disks and damask onto canvas, six eye-catching character studies in big bold wooden frames create an energetic atmosphere inside the gallery’s modest new Molton Street venue. 🗓️ Until 07 Nov
👍🏻 Sadie Coles - Nicole Eisenman (Mayfair) — Any one of the ten works could justify an 800-word analysis that I don’t have time to write, so I spent my time admiring Eisenman’s penchant for satire and whimsy, like the exposed butt cracks in the ICE clown car or the neighbourly gossip told via miniature figures in illuminated nighttime windows. 🗓️ Until 21 Nov
👎🏻 Sprüth Magers - Lucy Dodd (Mayfair) — Thank goodness the custom shaped frames and fringed stitching are eye catching because the images they’re holding are just a bit too bland and samey-samey, although they are hiding a few visual surprises for those with patience and time to study them. 🗓️ Until 24 Oct
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👍🏻 The Smallest Gallery in Soho - Vivien Reinert (Soho) — Inspired by the iconic designs and equally famous chaos of the Tube, and specifically referencing the lines that border Soho, the latest installation in the shop-window gallery is a colourfully enticing invitation to go Underground. 🗓️ Until Oct
👎🏻 Vardaxoglou - Tanoa Sasraku (Soho) — This Turner Prize nominee has absolutely earned the nod, but this is a frustrating show that’s clearly geared for monied Frieze visitors. The eight works are so effectively identical they might as well be listed as editions. On that note they’re also selling a poster, edition of 50, too. 🗓️ Until 31 Oct
EAST
Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath, Clerkenwell, Farringdon, Holborn, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Whitechapel… basically anything else east of Goodge Street
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👍🏻👍🏻 Victoria Miro - Hernan Bas (Old Street) — If you’re not familiar with Bas here’s a hint: READ THE TITLES! Sometimes setup, sometimes punchline, they’re a critical component of the dry wit and subtle humour hiding in plain sight on his canvasses. It often takes slow looking to discover the jokes but you’ll definitely spot that he’s pretty damn good with a brush, too. 🗓️ Until 14 Nov
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👍🏻 ai. gallery - Spectral Kinship (group show) (Liverpool Street) — The feeling is palpable and unsettling and it teeters between explosion and restraint in the way each of the artists choose to depict the struggle to break free from ‘suppressed histories and unaccommodated desires’. 🗓️ Until 07 Nov
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👍🏻 Auto Italia - Del LaGrace Volcano (Cambridge Heath) — A collection of previously unseen photos tracing queer, feminist, leather dyke, gender-variant, and land-based communities in San Francisco and Santa Fe in the 70s-80s. This sociological archive is a heartwarming reminder of how content and expressive individuals become when they find safe spaces to be themself, surrounded by their people. 🗓️ Until 25 Oct
👍🏻 IMT Gallery - Anna Sebastian (Cambridge Heath) — You’ll question whether you’re standing outside or in these scenes where subtle details hide in plain sight, patiently waiting to reveal themselves as you get drawn deeper into their mysterious world. 🗓️ Until 01 Nov
👍🏻 Neven - Adam Lewis Jacob (Cambridge Heath) — The knowingly DIY aesthetic adds to the charm of seeing once pristine, formerly sexy stilettos ripped apart and transformed into a collection of rough geometric abstracts and one lamp that reminds me of a Demogorgon. 🗓️ Until 24 Oct
‼️ 👍🏻 No Show Space - Softwear (group show) (Cambridge Heath) — Did you know Looms ran on binary punch cards over a century before computers? Neither did I, and that might be the least interesting thing you’ll encounter in this tight show of beguiling work that combines both technologies to create engaging abstracts filled with code. 🗓️ Until 17 Oct
‼️ 👍🏻👍🏻 Soft Opening - Maren Karlson (Cambridge Heath) — An unexpected hang augments the visuals of the work in what is quite possibly the most annoying show you’ll visit all year as regards the physical impact is has on your viewing experience, and that’s why it’s now my favourite. 🗓️ Until 17 Oct
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👎🏻 The Approach (Bethnal Green) — Unless you’re a fan or collector of Phillip Allen you’ll probably find yourself uttering that infamous art-skeptic phrase “my kid could do that” before you’ve even finished walking through the door. His paper drawings are deep cuts for the obsessives but for casual visitors they might be a fascinating counterpoint to the meticulously photorealistic oil paintings by Olivia Jia who has skills for days, except I’m continuously frustrated that her sublime works are just so… boring. 🗓️ Until 31 Oct
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‼️ 👍🏻👍🏻 Public Gallery - Cece Phillips (Aldgate) — From life sized to tiny vignette a dozen paintings draw you in to their melancholy atmosphere thanks to a sombre palette and mysterious cinematic compositions that create the spooky sensation you’re sneaking around and spying on someone in their house. 🗓️ Until 18 Oct
👍🏻 Union Pacific - Jason Thompson (Aldgate) — If I had to analyse the artist based purely on the work I’d say he’s a massive fan of Rorschach tests but feels they need to be a bit less abstract and a lot more colourful, so he did just that. 🗓️ Until 07 Nov
WEST
Chelsea, Kensington, Hyde Park, Lisson Grove, Notting Hill, Victoria
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👍🏻 Serpentine Pavilion 2026 (Hyde Park) — The first pavilion in years that hasn’t felt inviting inside. Maybe it’s the portable plastic fans and afterthought chairs that look like an estate sale bargain? Meandering the undulating wall is why this one is fun, but not as much fun as the two nearby outdoor artworks: Jesus Rafael’s human car wash and Guiseppe Penone’s bronze kintsugi’d willow tree. 🗓️ Until 25 Oct
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👍🏻👍🏻 Kew Gardens - Henry Moore (Kew Gardens) — Experience 30 monumental sculptures installed throughout the 320-acre site, plus another 90 smaller works in the gallery. Read my full review. 🗓️ Until 31 Jan 2027 (£ Ticketed)
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👎🏻 Boston Manor House - Floating Architectural Spaces (Boston Manor) — Self taught Alec Boreham makes truly stunning freehand line drawings of buildings and cityscapes. What I can’t understand is why they’ve been relentlessly kaleidoscoped and placed alongside a seemingly random assortment of pointless lenticulars, a leather clad Action Man and Queen Elizabeth II. This overly ambitious show has too many ideas, too tenuously linked to the venue, that too often obfuscates instead of enhances the heritage house setting. 🗓️ Until 25 Oct
SOUTH
Anything South of the Thames.
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‼️ 👍🏻👍🏻 Hayward Gallery - Anish Kapoor (Southbank) — I usually prefer to see art alone, but this is a show you need to experience amongst an awe-struck crowd. Watching people’s reactions and interactions with Kapoor’s mind-blowing black holes, infinite mirrors and icky gross bodily whatevertheyare’s is arguably the best part of this statement exhibition from an artist that continues to produce visually astounding work. 🗓️ Until 18 Oct (£ Ticketed)
👍🏻 Tate Modern - Ana Mendieta (Southbank) — There’s some fascinating questions being asked by this artist, but it’s a highly repetitive show weighed down by too many photos/documentation of her ephemeral art installations whose impact is muted when experienced as a static recap. 🗓️ Until 17 Jan 2027 (£ Ticketed)
👍🏻 Tate Modern - Frida Khalo (Southbank) — If exhibitions had nutrition labels instead of trigger warnings this one would sheepishly state: Ingredients contain less than 30% actual Frida Khalo. But you’re still going to go, aren’t you? Of course you are. 🗓️ Until 02 Jan 2027 (£ Ticketed)
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👍🏻 Corvi-Mora / Greengrassi (Kennington) — Margherita Manzelli paints exquisite imagined faces, augmented or obscured with delicate flowers and birds, but there’s a few too many works with too little variety. Whereas the two large ceramics upstairs from Lubna Chowdhary will leave you wanting more, more, more. 🗓️ Until 07 Nov
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👍🏻👍🏻 Imperial War Museum - Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art (Lambeth North) — This temporary exhibition that shows “how the artists of the 1940s responded to the drama of London under attack” is perfectly paired with the works in the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries that does the same, except with a wider range of artists across a lot more wars. It’s a powerful and timely combo that hammers home but never glorifies the brutality of warfare. 🗓️ Until 01 Nov
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‼️👍🏻 Coleman Projects - Sabrina Chou (Bermondsey) — What links hand carved wooden sculpture with mass production and consumption? The humble sausage, according to this artist, who has whittled a series that’s been staged in various daft and often confusing/amusing ways using common construction or domestic paraphernalia. 🗓️ Until 18 Oct
👍🏻 Sid Motion - That Which Appears (group show) (Bermondsey) — The final show from this gallery (yes, ever!) pairs contemporary artworks with archival drawings from the likes of Christo and Mies van der Rohe, often to great effect thanks to strong curation that makes this swan song exhibition even more bittersweet. 🗓️ Until 31 Oct
👍🏻 Southwark Park Galleries (Bermondsey) — Tony Soprano is notoriously adored by women much to the confusion of men so it’s fitting that he features twice in the Isabel Nolan retrospective, which is filled with far too many things that will make you cock your head and go “huh?”, but if you’re in an introspective mood this show just might spark some long lasting conversations that could last for days. The project space features a short stop-motion animation by Danfong Wang that explores gender and motherhood, and showcases much of the embroidery work and soft sculptures it features. 🗓️ Both until 01 Nov
👍🏻 White Cube - Gabriel Orozco (Bermondsey) — Clapping umbrellas, clever obits and a modified Citroën welcome you to the show like a three-punch knockout. You might as well stop there unless you find beauty in pattern and repetition, because the rest of the show is akin to viewing scientific archives from a coded alien language. It’s confounding and makes no sense, though not without the occasional visual charm. 🗓️ Until 08 Nov
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👍🏻 Soup - Kyvèli Zoi (Walworth) — This breakup show masquerading as an ode to a goldfish might not be as bitter as Lily Allen’s West End Girl but you’ll still walk out ruminating on the digital impact to modern relationships and tapping your toes thanks to the clever use of a bangin’ Zeppelin track. 🗓️ Until 24 Oct
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‼️ 👍🏻 Thames-Side Studios - Falsework (group show) (Woolwich) — It’s rare to encounter a group show willing to give each work so much space, so kudos to this sparse install that narrows your focus and heightens the impact of works exploring unseen or under-appreciated objects and infrastructures. 🗓️ Until 18 Oct
Further Afield
Where your Oyster Card wont work!
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👍🏻 Fitzwilliam Museum - Frank Bowling (Cambridge) — With two of his earliest 1960s figurative works alongside recently made abstracts this tight show will appeal to fans and possibly entice newcomers but disappoint anyone expecting a retrospective. There’s only 10 of his works, but the Fitzwilliam is a Roundup-worthy venue everyone should visit at least once so if you haven’t yet been… 🗓️ until 17 Jan 2027 (FREE)
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