7 must-see exhibitions in London during Frieze Art Week

The Tate’s wide-ranging survey ‘Nigerian Modernism’, which opens ahead of Frieze Week, brings together more than 250 works by more than 50 artists, focusing on figures such as Uzo Egonu, Ladi Kwali and Ben Enwonwu, as well as the Zaria Art Society and Mbari Artists’ and Writers’ Club. Such networks, whose members form a hybrid language, are currently only explored in institutional settings.

This exhibition should be in dialogue with the Royal Academy’s ‘Kerry James Marshall: A History’, just a short walk from the Thames, Covent Garden and Soho. By reimagining Western art history, Marshall’s work proposes an aesthetic for artists once written outside of the narrative—a shift that resonates especially during Frieze Art Week, when London becomes the focus of global conversations about artistic representation, presence, and power.

As part of this year’s Frieze Week, Ryan Gander opens My Desire Is Wrong , a new solo exhibition curated by filmmaker Hala Matar. The exhibition, on display at Camden Arts Project, blends Gander’s signature wit and observation into a series of sculptures and installations.

The artist, who lives with muscular dystrophy, demonstrates a subtle yet sharp ability to convey his physical experiences in the city, imbuing his work with humour, vulnerability and precision. As well as the Camden exhibition, Gander has a presence all over London: a giant inflatable sculpture will enliven the grounds of the Lisson Gallery, while in Elephant Park in the south, his permanent commission has been shortlisted for this year’s Public Sculpture Prize.

Taken together, these projects reveal an artist at the pinnacle of his art, thinking broadly about movement, impulse, and play in urban environments.

“Desire to Reveal” offers a more intimate counterpoint to the large-scale institutional exhibitions that dominate Frieze Week. The exhibition traces the intertwined histories of fetishism, eroticism and Surrealism – from fin-de-siècle Symbolism to contemporary art – and features works by Hans Bellmer, Leonor Fini, Louise Bourgeois and Renate Behrmann.

Salton has long been an advocate for overlooked artists, especially female artists, who worked in obscurity throughout their lives, many of them behind the Iron Curtain. This commitment is particularly important now as collectors and institutions move away from ultra-contemporary trends toward the rediscovery of alternative classics. The exhibition may be exciting, but it is grounded in Salton’s curatorial mission and broader market shifts—to mine the unearthed past as a source of new experiences.

In West London’s stately Ladbroke Hall, fashion designer Rick Owens turns to sculptural furniture and an aesthetic of decay in “Rust Never Sleeps.” Curated by his wife and creative partner, the always understated Michèle Lamy, the exhibition draws inspiration from London’s Brutalist architecture. Beds, tables and chairs made of metal, alabaster and resin strike a balance between rigor and sophistication, but their tensile strength can erode over time.

Owens blurs the lines between utility and sculpture, design and performance. The title – a Neil Young reference – evokes the inevitability of change, reminding us that even the greatest forms, as well as the bodies we inhabit, are subject to the effects of entropy. At the opening, Rami, now 81, hosted a night of deconstructed lasagna, black mezcal martinis, and a room bathed in red light and echoing with electronic music.

Just a few steps away from Frieze London, Italian gallery Alice Amati, a new addition to the city’s ecosystem, presents “Tablescapes”, the second solo exhibition of American painter Danielle Fretwell. These figurative still lifes transform simple arrangements of fruit, glass and linen into strange palimpsests. Combining oil painting and printmaking, Fretwell pressed paint-soaked linen onto the canvas to create ghostly traces of where it once rested.

Amati represents a new generation of London gallerists, catering to young, globally minded collectors – many of whom are influenced by technology and finance rather than family wealth – who are attuned to the untested voices in contemporary painting. Her plans reflect that shift: serious and conceptual, yet suitable for new buyers ready to reinvent the urban market from the ground up.

In East London, Maureen Paley’s refurbished gallery at 4 Herald Street opened just in time for Frieze with the exhibition “Build From Here,” a collection of Wolfgang Tillmans’ latest photographs—still lifes, portraits and abstractions marked by his surreal familiarity. The show marked a triumphant moment for Paley, emphasizing her ability for continuity and renewal – she first presented Tillmans in the 1990s.

The building’s history enriches the displays: the space was once part of Tillmans’ own London studio, and it carries traces of his past while providing a platform for new work from a generation deeply inspired by him. In an age characterized by impermanence and fleeting attention spans, “Start Here” invites viewers to consider the value of relationships built on trust and time.

For visitors who want a break from the commercial bustle of Frieze, the Peter Doig-designed Music House at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park offers an escape. The artist turns his long-standing engagement with sound into a multi-sensory meditation—especially for those who are happiest buying vinyl records. In addition to recent paintings, Doig has assembled restored analogue speakers, turntables, and recordings, creating an environment that blurs the lines between artist studio and record store.

Doig’s interest in visual and auditory atmospheres demonstrates that painting can operate like music: through tone, repetition and mood. This is an exhibition that rewards those willing to turn off Instagram, unfollow and linger.