Frieze Fairs 2025: Is the London art space returning to a Golden Age?

By Clara Kenney

Described by The Guardian as the ‘graveyard of creativity’ in 2023, this year’s Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs appear to have made a comeback from the artistic coma of more recent years. After struggling significantly in the post-Covid world, Carollo argues that this year acts ‘less like a post-Brexit correction and more like the city sliding back into its golden age’, suggesting Frieze has finally had its commercial revival. Philip Hoffman of New Perspective Art Partners and Fine Art Group remarks: ‘Many dealers said they exceeded their expectations. Several Old Master dealers mentioned they had a very strong day—three or four times better than last year. Most of the big galleries sold out their young contemporary presentations, either fully pre-sold or gone on the first day.’ Commercial success was not limited to events at Frieze. On the opening day of the fairs, Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale achieved a remarkable £106 million pounds in sales; the highest total in seven years and thirty percent above the equivalent sale last year.

The October evening sales that brought the London auction houses their highest totals in years.

Image Courtesy of Sotheby's

These successes have been facilitated by material structural changes to the fair itself. In recent years, smaller galleries at Frieze have been overshadowed by the large, international commercial galleries. But in 2024 the pricing structure and floor-plan were reinvented and adjusted to illuminate those smaller players. Changes included moving the ‘Focus’ section, which is dedicated to housing galleries under twelve years old, towards the entrance of the tent - forcing prospective buyers to walk through the younger, smaller galleries before reaching household names like Hauser, Wirth, and Gagosian. Further, a tiered pricing system was introduced which afforded smaller galleries to display in the main sections of the fair, breathing a new sense of dynamism into Frieze London.

Sophia Al-Maria, Wall Based Work, 2025, Performance Art, Frieze London.

Image courtesy of The Art Newspaper

 Some notable highlights of this year’s fair include Sophia Al-Maria’s, stand-up performance ‘Wall-Based Work’, which touched on a wide array of current themes including the assault on Gaza, and also commentary on the world of contemporary commercial art. Other notable works include a large collection of tapestry and textiles, including Grayson Perry’s impressive rainbow narrative tapestry ‘The Story of My Life’ at Victoria Miro Gallery, and Otobong Nkanga’s monumental intergalactic tapestry taking up an entire wall of Lisson Gallery’s booth.

Cadence Otobang Nkganga, While We Wait and Watch, 2025, Woven Tapestry, 400 x 1050 cm, Frieze London.

Image courtesy of Lisson Gallery.

Whilst many of the smaller UK galleries are reporting a successful fair, not all exhibitors are so positive. ‘The feeling among the non-UK dealers here in the Focus section, at least the ones I’ve spoken to, is that it’s becoming a very local market, despite the locals trying to communicate the opposite,’ said gallery director Diego Diez. This suggests that this year’s buyers are more domestic and less international. Some dealers have proposed that the changing environment for taxation, happening as a consequence of Brexit and Trump’s tariffs, is reducing London’s attractiveness for international buyers.

Despite such mixed opinions, the growing appreciation for smaller galleries remains one of the most exciting elements of the fair. Often a sign of renewed market confidence, one could argue that this year’s Frieze truly marks the beginnings of a revival of the ‘golden age’.

Bibliography

Carollo, Elisa. ‘Frieze London Restores Market Confidence and Outsells Expectations.’ Observer, October 16, 2025. https://observer.com/2025/10/art-fair-report-frieze-london-2025-major-sales-museum-buys-market-power/.

Carollo, Elisa. ‘London Sees Its Best Evening Auction Results in Years.’ Observer, October 17, 2025. https://observer.com/2025/10/results-frieze-week-london-auctions-christies-sothebys-phillips-records/.

Jennings, Phin. ‘The Art Market Sees Glimmers of Hope during London’s Frieze Week.’ Bloomberg, October 17, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-17/frieze-week-london-shows-that-art-market-collectors-are-back.

Jones, Jonathan. ‘Frieze London Art Fair Review – a Graveyard of Creativity for Tasteless One Percenters.’ The Guardian, October 11, 2023, sec. Art and design. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/11/frieze-london-art-fair-review-regents-park-london .

Maneker, Marion. ‘Frieze Keeps Calm and Carries On.’ Puck, October 17, 2025. https://puck.news/frieze-week-london-strong-sales-careful-buyers/.

Nelson, George. ‘The Stakes Are High for Emerging Galleries at Frieze; Some Are Selling, Others Aren’t as Lucky.’ Art News, October 16, 2025. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/the-stakes-are-high-for-emerging-galleries-at-frieze-some-are-selling-others-arent-as-lucky-1234757562/.