Mechanisms through which a fair becomes a barameter of civilization’s self image
Held from 15–19 October 2025, Frieze London took over Regent’s Park for its latest edition. This year, more than 280 galleries operating across 45 countries came together for both Frieze London and Frieze Masters. The fair radiated some of today’s most vibrant artistic voices, reflecting the energy of the city and the wider global art scene. Galleries from Tunisia, Japan, and Brazil brought fresh perspectives, further broadening its reach.
With London as its flagship location and additional editions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seoul, Frieze has established itself as a global network connecting artists, galleries, and collectors worldwide. Beyond its fairs, Frieze continues to expand the dialogue around contemporary art through initiatives such as No.9 Cork Street and Frieze Connect, sustaining engagement throughout the year. With a team dedicated to artistic innovation, Frieze remains a leading platform for exchange, connecting audiences with some of today’s most influential artists.
Frieze Sculpture, which begins earlier and runs slightly longer, transforms Regent’s Park into an open-air exhibition. Coinciding with both fairs, it runs from 17 September to 2 November 2025 and is curated by Fatos Üstek. This year’s evocative theme, In the Shadows, features works by 14 international artists. Beyond the artworks themselves, the fair is infused with energy through talks, panels, dinners, and other programmed events that weave together ideas, experiences, and perspectives, offering visitors a layered encounter with art both inside and out.
Chidy Wayne: Pugnator 076, (2025) Oil, crayon, modeling paste on canvas | 204 x 154 cm | 80.3 x 60.6 in. | Photograph by OJrnl
Day One: Frieze London: The Contemporary Pulse
15th October 2025
Regent’s Park, London, United Kingdom
03:00 PM — A network of white pavilions forms a temporary city, carefully assembled and efficiently operated. Entry unfolds with an organised rhythm, structured yet seamless. Badges are scanned, paper maps distributed on arrival, and spotlights guide visitors through the fair’s landscape.
The booths function as micro-galleries, where concept meets display. Frieze can be understood as a cultural platform in flux, dismantled and rebuilt each year, its meaning found in the act of renewal. At its core, it operates as an educational construct embedded with narratives from all walks of life, disguised as a market. It demonstrates how value is shaped through curiosity, revealing as much about the worldview of our civilisation as it does about the art on display.
Several works at Frieze captured attention this year, drawing one across continents and practices. Do Ho Suh, represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery, with spaces in New York, London, South Korea, and Hong Kong, was particularly compelling for his intricate explorations of space and memory. Chidy Wayne, represented by Southern Guild, a gallery based in Los Angeles and Cape Town, offered a striking dialogue between soul and narrative. Jan Gatewood, represented by Rose Eaton Gallery in London, held attention with works exploring presence and perception. Marco A. Castillo, presented by Albarrán Bourdais Gallery, based in Madrid and Menorca, engaged audiences through pieces that draw extensively from architecture, design, and sculpture histories, weaving nuanced storytelling and form. Finally, Lee Bae, represented by Johyun Gallery in South Korea, captivated with monochromatic expressions that evoke depth, simplicity, and movement.
Marco A. Castillo: Wakamba Nervurado 3, (2025) Museum cardboard | 100 x 140 x 16 cm | 39.37 x 55.12 x 6.30 in. | Photograph by OJrnl
Day Two: Frieze Masters: The Continuum
16th October 2025
Regent’s Park, London, United Kingdom
02:00 PM — A short walk across Regent’s Park leads to the Masters pavilion, another world. The palette changes: The air feels older but steady here. Warmer light, lower voices and a calmness in the air. Frieze Masters feels like stepping into a conversation between centuries. Here, the weight of pigment and the patience of carving all speak in their own tempos. Artworks made long before our algorithms share the same floor as mid-century abstraction.
For a visitor, this is a study in continuity. The same human hand that chiselled marble two thousand years ago set the stage for the same impulse you saw yesterday in contemporary glass sculptures. Different tools, same longing. It’s about dialogue. The old and new coexist not in opposition, but as reflections. Where Frieze London glides with acceleration, Frieze Masters breathes in slow time. You begin to notice how light behaves differently across eras. The fair itself becomes a time machine, designed by curators and defined by collectors.
Frieze London shows how we project the now and the future; Frieze Masters shows what the past still projects back. Together, they create a feedback loop an evolving record of human continuity and transformation. Every year, it reveals what civilization currently values which materials, which identities and which narratives are of value. Each work contributes a point of insight into what it means to be aware, creative, and reflective of our time.
Do Ho Suh: ScaledBehaviour_runOn (door_1_36_1), (2025) Thread and resin | 128.5 x 99 x 17.8 cm | 50 9/16 x 39 x 7 in. (framed) | Photo by OJrnl
The Quiet Trade Between Sight and Faith
At Frieze, taste is both observed and challenged. A place where preferences are stretched, questioned, and occasionally overturned. What one person loves, another may dismiss entirely and that tension is vital. It keeps art alive. Art isn’t designed to please universally. It’s meant to awaken perception beyond what the eye can hold, whether attraction or aversion and to reveal where our instincts lie.
The same applies to value. What one collector deems priceless, another may pass without pause, a visible expression of connection. The true art of the fair lies in recognition. To notice what calls to you and to trust that call. To encounter a work that slows the rhythm of perception itself, stir a memory, or unlock an interior space you didn’t know was waiting. That’s the quiet transaction Frieze facilitates. The fair feeds curiosity according to each visitor’s own lens and pace.
Artists often find ways to approach the unseen contours of truth with quiet precision, revealing what might otherwise remain unseen. Art, at its core, is an act of expression, a way of reaching toward understanding without confrontation. Every artist works differently; every practice carries its own rhythm. Some speak openly about their ideas, others express them through silence. Some studios are orderly and deliberate, others wild and instinctive. Regardless of the form it takes, what matters most is the creative intent behind it, the willingness to translate what cannot easily be said.
To engage with art is to learn patience, awareness, and respect for the process, for the maker, and for the mystery that lives between them. To be a part of the journey is to accept that growth takes time, and that curiosity must be sustained. Research and knowledge matter, but instinct and perception guide the deeper understanding. The art world, despite its layers and hierarchies, thrives as one living ecosystem, an exchange of vision, attention, and narrative. To stay curious is to stay alive to the world around you. Art, in this sense, is a lifelong education, a reminder that there is never just one truth, one way of seeing, or one way of being. For more information, visit frieze.com.
