The nights are drawing in, the leaves are turning brown and crispy underfoot, and… Frieze London 2024 is nearly upon us. With a packed schedule at the fair and around London, ensure you don't miss anything with our handy and frequently updated guide to Frieze Week, 9-13 October.
Frieze London 2024: what to see at the fair
The fair programme was announced this year with news of a complete redesign of both Frieze London and its sister fair Frieze Masters by A Studio Between. New layouts and curated zones represent a return to the original values of Frieze (which marked its 20th anniversary in 2023), with a focus on the contemporary and the practices and interests of artists – a new tent, flanked by windows will also bring in natural light and a view of Regent’s Park.
Putting emerging galleries first, Frieze London has moved the Focus section to the entrance of the fair. It features Dean Sameshima, who is showing erotic dot-to-dot works with Soft Opening, Divine Southgate-Smith with sculpture, drawing and 3D animation at Nicoletti and, at Ginny on Frederick, Charlotte Edey will showcase a site specific installation of tapestries and stained glass windows. The Artist to Artist programme, which sees high profile artists select a lesser known or younger counterpart to exhibit at the fair, returns with Hurvin Anderson nominating Peter Uka, Rashid Johnson nominating Rob Davis and Yinka Shonibare who selected up and coming painter Nengi Omuku. There will also be a new curated section Smoke, helmed by Pablo José Ramírez of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, focusing on ceramics and clay works that connect with indigenous histories.
Frieze Masters, which shows pieces dating from prehistory, features the Spotlight section revealing the practices of overlooked artists throughout history, and the Studio section where early and recent work by artists are shown alongside ephemera from their studios.
Frieze London 2024: shows and fairs around town
As always, London's museums and galleries will stage a plethora of exhibitions, happenings and parties across the city, making Frieze Week a showcase of the best that London’s art world has to offer. So if you’re not the art-fair type, then simply head to your favourite gallery or take a stroll around Mayfair, Peckham, Soho, Shoreditch or Bethnal Green.
At Bow Arts, Rosie Gibbens will be performing her unique, humorous and well-observed works. At the French Protestant Church in Soho, Azu Nwagbogu curates Ghanian painter Kwesi Botchway in ‘The Sun Must Come Down’; and at Marylebone space The Bomb Factory, ‘One National Under a Groove’ will include work by Rana Begum, Oman Youesfzada, Zak Ové, Horace Ové and Rosemary Clunie + Ben Okri. Contemporary African Art fair 1-54 will run for the latter half of the week at Somerset House, showcasing the cutting edge from the continent, and the sumptuous design fair PAD London will take its regular spot in Berkley Square. Chris Levine, famous for his portraits of Kate Moss and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, will also be staging something special at The Four Seasons, Park Lane.
In Fitzrovia, TJ Boulting is presenting Sarah Lucas’ egg-throwing performance, 1000 Eggs: For Women, to launch its egg-themed group show, ‘An Oeuf is An Oeuf’. Levy Gorvy Dayan is staging a magic-themed group show, ‘Enchanted Alchemies’, featuring work by Linder, and Alejandro Jodorowsky and Leonora Carrington. Looking West, Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Ladbroke Hall will be showing tactile sculpture by Nacho Carbonell. In a new choral installation, Ekow Eshun curates Es Devlin at St Mary le Strand in Congregation.
Jonas Wood will be taking over Gagosian’s Burlington Arcade bolthole, while Ropac and Pace Galleries are both showing remarkable drawings of artist Robert Longo alongside solo shows from Genesis Belanger and Heemin Chung, respectively. Hauser & Wirth is featuring Jack Witten; White Cube has shows across its London galleries from Tracey Emin’s ‘I followed you to the end’ in Bermondsey and Danh Vo at Mason’s Yard; and Victoria Miro is showing paintings by Jules de Balincourt. Almie Rech is busy with a booth at Frieze London, a show with 16 Arlington at No. 9 Cork Street, plus a painting show, ‘The Lost Hours’ by Farah Atassi. And Sadie Coles HQ will be putting on ‘Mirror and Bear’, by the much-loved agent provocateur Jordan Wolfson. VIV Arts, a new platform at the intersection of art and technology, will launch during Frieze London with an exhibition, Controlled Burn, by Swiss-French artist Julian Charrière. At David Zwirner, Columbian artist Oscar Murillo unveils new paintings, while the Barbican opens its major survey into India's history of art during the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, while at St Michael + All Angels, Shoreditch, nine artists are gathering until 27 October.
Frieze London 2024: unmissable institutional shows
Frieze Week means the opening of the latest Tate Turbine Hall installation, and this year it is by Mire Lee, whose low-fi kinetica will take centre stage. Tate Modern is also opening ‘Mike Kelly: Ghost and Spirit’, which promises to please fans of the counter-cultural artist and musician. Tate Britain hosts the Turner Prize 2024 exhibition and Adam Farah Saad. The Serpentine will open two exhibitions, one an AI collaboration by Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst called ‘The Call’ and the other, the first UK solo show by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey Emajendat. South London Gallery is showing boundary-pushing sculpture by Nairy Baghramian, and Goldsmiths CCA hosts Congalese photographer Sammy Baloji. Head down to the ICA for deconstructed robotics from Geumhyung Jeong.
Fancy something more traditional? Van Gogh at The National Gallery and ‘Monet: Views of the Thames’ at The Courtauld have both been given five stars all round. This really is a stellar year.
Frieze London 2024 runs 9-13 October, frieze.com
