At Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Rediscoveries Are Giving the Market New Momentum

Frieze London and Frieze Masters opened on Wednesday (Oct. 14) at a slower, reset-era pace that has by now become familiar at fairs around the world. Even so, the aisles of both the contemporary fair and its sister show grew steadily busier as the day went on. After years of covering the fairs, Observer decided to start the day at Frieze Masters, and we weren’t the only ones. Mid-day, when moving between the tents, we overheard two prominent American collectors who’d structured their day similarly discussing the desire for genuine scarcity—the kind that makes an acquisition feel truly unique, like an opportunity not to be missed, as opposed to the artificially manufactured paucity that has sometimes fueled the contemporary market.

Frieze Masters hosted more than 140 galleries this year, with booths offering a journey through centuries of human creation, from antiquity to modernism. Its narrative grows broader and more diverse each year, inviting a multiperspectival reading of art history across geographies and long-overlooked viewpoints, with greater attention to mystical, queer, self-taught and Indigenous expressions long excluded from the canon. The result is a chance to reconsider these traditions not as isolated or marginal developments but as expressions of human creativity evolving in parallel across borders and time.

At the entrance, London’s ArtAncient has a Cypriot votive head of a man from the 7th-6th century B.C., discovered by Luigi Palma di Cesnola and once exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, priced at £250,000. Nearby are an Egyptian quartzite relief dated to 322 B.C. and an 18th-Dynasty Egyptian head of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, both offered in the six figures.

The day’s top transaction was the sale of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s oil on oak panel Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase (presented by Hauser & Wirth in dialogue with a floating Calder), which fetched in the region of £5 million.

Although Hauser & Wirth has dealt in historical masters alongside contemporary art since its founding, the placement of the Brueghel marks a significant milestone. “It is one of the most important works we’ve ever been involved with, and its backstory reflects not just art history but the history of how art moved in the 20th Century,” gallery co-president Iwan Wirth said in a statement. Part of the Rothschild collection from 1911, the painting was confiscated by the Nazis in 1938 and later entered the collection of the National Gallery in Prague before being restituted to the Rothschild family in 2016. It then returned to the market and remained in private hands until the gallery found a new home for this early 17th-century masterpiece. Hauser & Wirth reported selling 23 more works at Frieze Masters, including a wartime painting by Francis Picabia for €1.1 million and Pablo Picasso’s Violon (1943), a collage of rope and oil on cardboard, for €850,000. Other artists sold across the gallery’s two presentations included Bob Thompson, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Avery Singer, George Condo, Lee Bul and Christina Kimeze.

Several of the day’s other top sales also came at Frieze Masters. David Zwirner and Victoria Miro, each exhibiting in both tents, reported selling three paintings by Alice Neel from their joint presentation in “Queering Modernism” for $1.8 million, $1.6 million and $1.6 million. Conceived by curator Anke Kempkes, the new initiative runs throughout Frieze Masters, challenging conventional narratives of modernism through works that engage with gender, sexuality and self-representation. Vito Schnabel Gallery, meanwhile, brought a roster of contemporary blue-chip names and reported first-day sales of a George Condo for $925,000, alongside works by Ai Weiwei (€450,000), Ron Gorchov ($400,000), Markus Lüpertz (€350,000), René Ricard and Man Ray.

For collectors whose interests reach even further back in time, leading fossil dealer David Aaron is presenting an exceptionally complete, 150-million-year-old Camarasaurus supremus skull. Making the specimen rarer still is an Allosaurus tooth embedded in its lower jaw, preserving evidence of an encounter with one of the apex predators of the Late Jurassic. Priced at £1 million, the skull had drawn significant interest by the end of VIP day, though no sale had been finalized. Its appearance comes amid renewed attention to the fossil market following Sotheby’s record-breaking sale of Gus and the recent announcement that Jodi, the 68-million-year-old Nanotyrannus previously offered by David Aaron as Chomper, is heading to the auction house’s rostrum on Oct. 27 with an estimate of $6-9 million.

The more traditional Old Masters segment also had a strong opening, with reported sales including Edwin Lord Weeks’s At the Entrance of the Palace of Amber, Rajasthan (c. 1887), Pietro Antonio Novelli’s A Recumbent Lion and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Caricature of a Man in Profile (c. 1755-60), alongside Leonor Fini’s illustration for Fêtes secrètes (c. 1978) and Alexandre Iacovleff’s Portrait of Hu Xuan-Zhai (1931).

Making its Frieze Masters debut, Andrew Edlin Gallery pairs work by two long-overlooked figures: Antiguan painter Frank Walter (1926-2009) and American sculptor Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015), both enjoying growing institutional and commercial recognition. Walter’s vivid, intimate depictions of Caribbean landscapes and everyday life have drawn increasing attention since his work appeared at the 2017 Venice Biennale, and an exhibition at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, opening Nov. 13, should further build momentum. His works were priced between $20,000 and $370,000. Buchanan’s humble shacks and assemblages become powerful repositories of memory, preserving the often-overlooked histories of Black communities in the American South and translating experiences of displacement and resilience through vernacular architecture. Following her inclusion in this year’s Venice Biennale, she is the subject of her first European survey, “Weathering,” at Spike Island in Bristol and will feature in the upcoming exhibition “Hard Art” at MoMA PS1. Her works are priced between $70,000 and $125,000, and several sold on opening day.

Worth a stop this year is “Spotlight,” a feature of Frieze Masters since 2012, returning in its largest edition to date. Curated by Devika Singh and Sofia Gotti, both academics at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the section continues to expand the traditional Western canon. Bringing together pioneering figures of 20th-century modernism from Asia, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, it focuses primarily on works from the 1950s through the late 1970s, revealing distinctive languages of abstraction and figuration that often developed independently of the movements that came to dominate Western art history.

North African modernism has an especially strong presence this year. The fair’s first Moroccan gallery, Casablanca-based Loft Art Gallery, is presenting works by Mohamed Melehi, a leading figure in Arab abstraction and a founder of the influential Casablanca Art School. Titled “Wave Forms,” the presentation traces the evolution of Melehi’s distinctive language, shaped by his life journey and exchanges between Morocco, Europe and the U.S. while remaining deeply rooted in the country’s visual traditions. The result is a series of strikingly contemporary, almost hard-edge compositions that combine rhythmic waves of color with geometric precision. The works are priced between $100,000 and $400,000, with pieces from the 1970s and 1980s proving most popular with collectors.

Nearby, Tunis-based Elmarsa Gallery turns its attention to Algerian-born Mahjoub Ben Bella. Having moved to France before Algerian independence, he was exposed to the movements emerging at the time, from Nouveau Réalisme to abstraction, which led him to develop an intricate abstract language of signs and calligraphic marks. Without identifying directly with Lettrism, his practice explored the possibilities of writing as image, transforming signs into an abstract visual field suspended between communication and pure form, often with an almost sculptural physicality. Prices in the booth range from $30,000 to $130,000.

London’s Grosvenor Gallery is presenting Pakistani artist Syed Sadequain, whose intricate accumulations of signs and symbolic forms reflect his engagement with the expressive possibilities of calligraphy and the psychological dimensions of abstraction.

Another fascinating rediscovery comes from Paris-based Crèvecoeur, presenting a group of previously unseen works by Colombian artist Emma Reyes (1919-2003), whose extraordinary life took her from a childhood confined in a Catholic convent, where she was forced to embroider, to the artistic and literary circles of Buenos Aires, Mexico, Rome and Paris. Entirely self-taught despite her encounters with figures such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Enrico Prampolini, Reyes developed a highly personal visual language of intricate, almost mandala-like structures, captivating minimalist symbolism and archetypal figures of femininity, informed by her sensitivity to materials and her early experience of embroidery. The Monsters series combines the inspiration she drew from close study of pre-Columbian artifacts in Mexico under Rivera’s guidance and from the ritual body painting she observed among Indigenous communities with the influence of Futurist painter Prampolini, her partner and collaborator at the time, who appears here with the writer Alberto Moravia as beings part human, part animal. A gifted storyteller, Reyes was encouraged by Gabriel García Márquez to keep writing about her extraordinary childhood in a series of letters later published as Memoria por correspondencia. Works are priced between $20,000 and $100,000, with one painting placed with a museum in France.

Meanwhile, Richard Saltoun Gallery continues its efforts to win renewed recognition for the symbolically and archetypally charged work of Manina, bringing the artist’s enigmatic Surrealist universe to Frieze after a strong response at Art Basel and Independent in New York. The gallery’s sustained commitment to her legacy across fairs is paying off with institutional traction, with two works sold and another on hold early on opening day.

For those interested in vintage photography, another compelling stop is Taipei’s Each Modern, which explores the dialogue between traditional Chinese painting and early photographic experimentation through the work of Lang Jingshan. He translated the compositional principles and poetic atmosphere of classical Chinese landscape painting into photographic images, and his experiments with composite printing, multiple exposures and layered imagery anticipated some of the visual manipulations now associated with digital photography while remaining rooted in a far older pictorial tradition. His work was featured in Tate Modern’s “Light and Magic” exhibition, and a 2017 Sotheby’s sale reflected growing market attention. Well known among Chinese collectors, his photographs are priced between $10,000 and $40,000.

The Gallery of Everything devoted an immersive, organically designed presentation incorporating wood to the visionary botanical imagery of Czech artist Anna Zemánková. Her intricate, biomorphic compositions, somewhere between imaginary flowers, anatomical structures and spiritual visions, reveal an extraordinarily personal language that defies conventional distinctions between abstraction, figuration and outsider art. The gallery had sold several works, priced between $37,000 and $95,000. As founder James Brett observed, visitor numbers may have been lower, but those attending were considerably more focused.

A parallel reassessment of the canon is gaining momentum across the Atlantic, as Berry Campbell‘s presentation “Women of the 8th Street Club” shows, spotlighting women artists central to New York’s postwar Abstract Expressionist movement who were long excluded from its dominant narrative. The booth brings together figures such as Mary Abbott, Elaine De Kooning, Perle Fine, Mercedes Matter and Edith Schloss, recalling an influential circle in which women played an essential role despite being largely denied formal membership and recognition. “We’re thrilled to return to Frieze Masters for our fourth year. Year after year, the fair has established itself as a pinnacle of the international art market and as a vital platform for critically reassessing 20th-century women artists,” Christine Berry told Observer, reporting a real sense of excitement on opening day. “It has also been fantastic to see such a strong presence of museum representation around the fair.” By evening, the gallery had sold a work by Mary Abbott for $85,000 and another by Edith Schloss for $35,000.

“Queering Modernism” finds compelling expression in the almost archetypally totemic sculptures of visionary Colombian artist Luis Fernando Zapata (1951-1994), presented jointly by Alonso Garcés Galería and Elvira Moreno Gallery. Resembling ancient bronze or ceramic ritual objects, these fragile constructions resonate with different ancestral pasts. They evoke the apparent permanence of archaeological remains, yet they are made from paper pulp, pigments and other ephemeral materials. Created largely in Paris between 1988 and 1994, after the artist’s travels through Egypt, North Africa and other regions and against the backdrop of his experience of the AIDS CRISIS, these archetypal forms emerged from a deeply personal exploration of the body, memory, ritual and death. Zapata’s work is held by the Centre Pompidou and the Museo Reina Sofía, and pieces are priced here between $40,000 and $60,000. One of the works on view was acquired through the Frieze Tate Fund.

D’Lan Galleries continues its mission of building international exposure for Australian First Nations art, returning to Frieze Masters with a solo presentation of George Tjungurrayi. The gallery hopes to build the same international momentum it helped generate around Emily Kam Kngwarray, the subject of a major Tate exhibition, and other leading Western Desert artists. Like Kngwarray, Tjungurrayi translates ancestral knowledge and a profound connection to Country into a distinctly contemporary abstract language, though his compositions are more geometrically structured, with intricate parallel lines and interlocking patterns that create almost hypnotic optical vibrations. The gallery reported selling five paintings, led by Untitled – Mamultjulkulnga (2005) for £84,600 and Untitled – Tjulurulnga (2007) for £63,000, alongside three works from 2010, 2017 and 2018 for £13,000, £9,500 and £19,000, respectively. Additionally, two traditional Wunda shields sold for £8,000 and £5,000.

Equally thoughtful is “Reflections,” another curated section connecting art, architecture and design that reveals how these disciplines have long evolved in dialogue, from ancestral traditions to the early and later avant-gardes. Curated by Abby Bangser, founder and creative director of Object & Thing, the section returns for its second edition with six presentations inspired by Luis Barragán’s house in Mexico City and Charles and Maggie Jencks’ Cosmic House in London—two extraordinary examples of domestic architecture conceived as experimental environments in which the boundaries between art, design and everyday life deliberately dissolve.

Standing out here is Cologne’s Ammann Gallery, which revisits the experimentation of postmodern and radical architecture and design. Anchored by Alessandro Mendini’s iconic hand-painted Poltrona di Proust (1978), the booth gathers imaginative creations by fellow radicals including Alessandro Guerriero and Matteo Thun. On the walls hang the colorful, futuristic cities of Massimo Iosa Ghini, an architect who began his career illustrating comics and imagining fluid, aerodynamic urban environments before translating those visions into three-dimensional design. A founder of the Bolidismo movement, which embraced speed and dynamic forms, he was later invited by Ettore Sottsass to join the Memphis group, becoming part of an Italian avant-garde that challenged the rigid functionalism of modernist design.

At Frieze London, new discoveries drive the conversation beyond the blue chip

On the contemporary side, dealers reported healthy sales alongside a strong presence of local, European and international institutions, whose attendance alone often makes the fair worthwhile. As usual, the front of the tent leaned decidedly toward the new, giving center stage to emerging and more experimental practices, with fresh artistic languages and narratives capturing visitors’ attention as they entered—or rewarding their curiosity through ambitious solo presentations in the curated sections.

Near the entrance, Cologne-based Berthold Pott has a striking installation by Paris- and Athens-based artist Agata Ingarden. Part of her ongoing Hours of the Dog series, begun in 2021, the sculptures resemble fragmented architectural structures or miniature floating cities suspended from the ceiling, resting on fabric-covered pedestals that evoke classical Greek columns. Poised between construction and collapse, these strange, almost psychological architectures reflect on the rapid transformation of contemporary cities and the increasingly fragile notions of home, belonging and collective life as natural rhythms are disrupted by human intervention. Ingarden arrives at this prominent presentation with significant institutional momentum, following exhibitions at Triangle-Astérides in Marseille, the Collection Lambert in Avignon, Kunsthalle Appenzell and Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, as well as the 2024 Gwangju Biennale.

On the right side of the first tent is the new Artist-to-Artist section, featuring solo presentations by emerging artists selected by established international names. A highlight is Puerto Rican artist Jorge González Santos, selected by Gala Porras-Kim and presented by EMBAJADA. His practice is grounded in the recovery and transmission of ancestral techniques and crafts, particularly those involving natural materials and rituals tied to Puerto Rico’s native histories. His charcoal drawings use an almost cathartic process to revive ancestral symbols and artifacts from the island’s spiritual traditions. Unsurprisingly, the presentation was drawing considerable curatorial interest.

Also in the section, rising Seoul gallery CYLINDER is showing Seoul-based artist Eusung Lee, nominated by Ayoung Kim. With a distinctive industrial aesthetic that contrasts with the malleable appearance of his posthuman shells and casts, Lee explores the relationship between the body and infrastructure and how the systems around us reshape physical experience. Especially compelling are the works from his Monsoon series, bas-reliefs shaped directly by natural elements and the shifting conditions of the ground, prompting a broader reflection on how built environments, technological systems and material transformations reshape the body and its behavior. The result is a sculptural language suspended between physical vulnerability and the increasingly artificial structures that organize contemporary existence.

Another rewarding dialogue emerges at Alice Amati, where Louise Giovanelli selected Paul Robas, whose intimate, glitch-like paintings explore the instability of images and memory. Working between photographic references and painterly manipulation, Robas creates compositions in which familiar subjects become strangely displaced, caught between recognition and visual interference. By early afternoon, the booth had sold out, with all sales made on-site at around £5,000 each.

Blouin Division is showing a solo exhibition of Caroline Monnet, nominated by Jeffrey Gibson. A recurring presence at major North American institutions and biennials, Monnet remains less familiar in Europe, where First Nations artists still need greater visibility, despite the positive response at the fair. Her geometric compositions translate Anishinaabe visual traditions and ancestral knowledge into a contemporary abstract language, often incorporating industrial materials associated with construction and architecture. Bridging ancestral patterns and modern development, her work explores the intersections of cultural identity, territory and the built environment, suggesting how Indigenous wisdom might reshape our understanding of the contemporary world.

Another powerful example of reconnecting ancestral knowledge with a contemporary visual vocabulary comes from Peruvian artist Andrea Canepa, presented by Lima’s CRISIS. Drawing on Andean modernism and ancestral forms of knowledge, Canepa develops a language concerned with perception, balance and material relationships. Sculptural forms inspired by spinning tops become devices for reflecting on light, movement and the instability of what we see, while her stone-based compositions and mosaics explore how irregular forms find their own equilibrium through their imperfections. What first appears to be a geometric or formal exercise becomes a reflection on the relationship between individual elements and the larger structures they compose.

Also in the section is the fast-rising Public Gallery, which is staging an eerie domestic environment with sculptures by Taiwanese artist Steph Huang. Transforming everyday objects and familiar domestic references into playful sculptural encounters, Huang questions systems of power, consumption and the material conventions governing our lives. Her objects hover between the absurd and the functional, exposing the often ludicrous rituals through which we interact with things while drawing attention to the social and economic structures behind them. Following her recent presentation at Tate and ahead of a solo exhibition with Perrotin in Tokyo, Huang is gaining significant momentum. The gallery reported placing nearly the entire booth with important private collections, at prices between £7,000 and £12,000.

Milan’s Eastcontemporary, a gallery dedicated to Eastern European talent, has a solo booth of new works by Anastasia Sosunova that investigates the systems of power and control through which individual and collective identities are constructed, turning the visual language of DIY culture into an unsettling mythology of survival and self-reliance within a precarious industrial installation and its network of relations. The presentation draws on the Baltic home-improvement chain Kesko Senukai, whose promises of personal empowerment and self-improvement through manual labor have, the work suggests, taken on an almost cult-like dimension. Sosunova turns this ideology of self-reliance into a broader reflection on contemporary capitalism and the illusion of independence. Works are priced between £5,000 and £35,000, with one sold and another on hold.

A dreamlike atmosphere unfolds at Milan’s Clima, where Justine Neuberger is presenting ethereal, fantastical paintings that emerge from the spontaneous, shape-shifting imagination of childhood. The artist has turned away from her darker, more haunting, though similarly symbolic, earlier work. Drawing on the visual possibilities of fairy tales and imagined worlds, her new compositions embrace a lighter, more playful dimension of fantasy without abandoning its unsettling potential. Works were offered between £9,000 and £21,000.

Another presentation drawing collectors’ attention was the Frieze London debut of Japanese painter Asami Shoji with Shanghai-based Linseed. Her fluid, subconscious-driven mindscapes inhabit an ambiguous territory between figuration and abstraction, where bodies and creatures dissolve into one another, their contours becoming porous thresholds rather than fixed boundaries. There is something both visceral and dreamlike in these paintings, whose spontaneous gestures and shifting forms register sensations and psychological states before they can settle into recognizable images. Rather than following a linear narrative, Shoji develops an almost diaristic form of symbolic storytelling, translating fleeting encounters and emotions into an unstable pictorial universe suspended between the familiar and the foreign, even uncanny, that emerges when the psyche slips past society’s filters. Drawing international attention after presentations at Independent New York and Frieze Los Angeles, her work found early interest and buyers in London, with prices below £30,000 and sales made both on-site and ahead of the fair, alongside further discussions with collectors.

The relationship between identity, social conventions and the systems shaping contemporary experience is also central to “The Code Universe,” a new section curated by Carol Yinghua Lu. Among its most compelling presentations is a solo show by Karim Boumjimar at TINA, one of London’s more recently opened, fast-rising galleries. Across ceramics, works on paper and a new site-responsive mural, the Spanish artist explores the body, identity and desire through an irreverent visual language that challenges fixed categories and conventional representations. Bringing together different materials and modes of expression, the installation extends his investigation of the body as a site of continual transformation, where personal identity intersects with the codes and expectations society imposes.

Even in the main section, where major international galleries usually vie for attention with their most established artists, there was considerable room for younger voices. Sargent’s Daughters, sharing a booth with G Gallery, reported placing several works by Rachel Young, priced between $6,800 and $8,000.

Making its Frieze London debut directly in the main section, Carvalho marked a significant milestone in its international expansion after years of building relationships with European artists and audiences. The New York gallery brought together Rachel Mica Weiss, Guillaume Linard Osorio and Corinna Gosmaro in an ambitious presentation exploring materiality, sensation and abstraction beyond figuration, featuring a monumental stone tapestry and a fiber installation suspended from the tent’s rafters. For Weiss, whose sculptural practice commands a substantial waiting list in the U.S., the fair was a chance to build momentum across the Atlantic. The strategy paid off, with works placed with U.K. and European collectors within the first hour, including two fiber pieces at £22,000 each. The booth also marked Gosmaro’s debut with the gallery ahead of her planned solo exhibition in April, with works across the presentation priced between £10,000 and £48,000.

Fair newcomer FOUNDRY SEOUL, together with Casa Triângulo, is presenting a solo installation of Fernanda Galvão’s lush, almost hallucinatory tropical landscapes, whose dense vegetation and fluid organic forms dissolve the boundaries between physical landscape and psychological space in a tactile, sensorially layered alchemy of pigments and materials sedimenting across the surface. With works priced between $8,000 and $30,000, the presentation was nearly sold out by evening.

The enthusiasm for Brazilian painting was hardly limited to emerging names; the country’s talent is enjoying a spotlight in London for the second year running, less by design this time than last year, when a curated section was devoted to it. Pace reportedly sold out its booth of Marina Perez Simão, whose atmospheric abstractions translate the rhythms of natural landscapes into fluid, immersive compositions of color and light.

Other Brazilian galleries also reported strong early results. Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is presenting new works by Márcia Falcão at its entrance stand, priced between $30,000 and $60,000, while Simões de Assis sold six paintings from its solo presentation of new works by Thalita Hamaoui, priced between $30,000 and $55,000. Nara Roesler reported first-day sales including paintings by André Griffo for $56,000 and Maria Klabin for $55,000, alongside a screen print on wood panel by Jonathas de Andrade for $20,000 and a mixed-media work by Marco A. Castillo for $18,000.

Blue-chip heavyweights keep the market moving

Among the usual heavy hitters and international megagalleries in the back tent, Gagosian sold out its solo presentation of new works by Albert Oehlen, while Hauser & Wirth sold a work by Avery Singer for $800,000, despite the artist’s disappointing results at the early fall auctions, and a painting by George Condo for $600,000. The gallery also placed paintings by Alison Katz and Christina Kimeze for $195,000 each, alongside two paintings by Nicole Eisenman ($175,000 and $150,000), two drawings by William Kentridge at $150,000 each and two works on paper by Glenn Ligon at $25,000 each. A large abstract canvas by Michaela Yearwood-Dan hanging on the booth’s exterior wall was selected for acquisition through the Frieze Tate Fund.

A double presence across the two fairs also translated into strong results for David Zwirner, which reported sales led by a $1.5 million painting by Michaël Borremans, followed by new works by Dana Schutz ($900,000) and Lisa Yuskavage ($450,000). Particularly notable were two institutional acquisitions: a new painting by Sasha Gordon for $400,000, placed with a European museum, and a work by Yu Nishimura for $170,000, acquired by an Asian museum. Other highlights included a painting by Portia Zvavahera for $300,000, two by Rose Wylie for $200,000 each, paintings by Emma McIntyre ($140,000) and Louis Fratino ($120,000), a photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans ($145,000), a work on paper by Marcel Dzama ($100,000) and a painting by Walter Price ($30,000).

Particularly fascinating this year was White Cube’s extensive presentation of Ilana Savdie’s new, visceral, kaleidoscopically layered abstractions, in which bodily fragments and organic forms seem to mutate into increasingly unstable, psychologically charged compositions. Installed in a scaffolding-interconnected system, her vivid canvases enter into fluid dialogue with works by artists including Hans Bellmer, Louise Bourgeois, Salvador Dalí and Leonor Fini, among others, forming a physical and metaphorical filter through which to view her work as part of an intergenerational continuum of reflection between body, psyche and identity. Eight works sold for prices ranging from $20,000 to $175,000, alongside works by Gabriel Orozco ($300,000), Shara Hughes ($175,000), Isamu Noguchi ($170,000), Alia Ahmad ($95,000), Marguerite Humeau (£75,000) and Georg Baselitz (€70,000). Later in the day, works by Frank Bowling, John Banting, Marlene Dumas and Leonor Fini also found buyers.

Sprüth Magers also reported significant sales throughout the day, including a large-scale watercolor by Kara Walker, which sold to an American buyer for $400,000, and a pastel on paper by the artist for $75,000. These were joined by two oil-on-linen works by Henni Alftan ($85,000 and $65,000) and three editions of a UV print on copper by Thomas Demand, from an edition of six, each for €60,000. A work by Anne Imhof sold for €95,000, while a work by Gala Porras-Kim was acquired for $45,000 by the Whitworth in Manchester through the Contemporary Art Society’s Frieze Collections Fund. Collectors also acquired works by Lucy Dodd, whose nature-inspired abstractions have taken over all three floors of the gallery’s Mayfair space in an exhibition that opened during Frieze Week.

Among the international heavyweights, Thaddaeus Ropac reported an especially strong opening, marked by the debut of Denzil Forrester under the gallery’s representation. Two of his paintings, Professor Version (2025) and Yard (2025), sold for £175,000 each within the first hour, ahead of his first solo exhibition with the gallery in London, scheduled for June 2027.

“It feels very appropriate that our first time showing Denzil’s work, now that we are working with him, should be in London. The response has been fantastic,” Ropac said. “I have long admired Denzil’s work. He has an outstanding ability to distill atmospheric energy, movement, together with communal emotions of joy, longing or fear, and his paintings are among the most enthralling and distinctive of his generation.”

On VIP day, the gallery also sold Mutilazione (1963), a ceramic sculpture by Italian postwar artist Leoncillo, for €300,000, following its announcement earlier this year that it represents the artist’s estate, swiftly followed by a solo exhibition now on view at its Milan space. Other significant sales included Antony Gormley’s Aside (2025) for £500,000, two works by Martha Jungwirth (€560,000 and €180,000), Adrian Ghenie’s Untitled (2026) for €380,000 and works by Megan Rooney, Joan Snyder, ZADIE XA and Sylvie Fleury.

Capitalizing on the momentum from Gertrude Abercrombie’s $1.3 million record, set by one of her recently rediscovered shell paintings at Freeman’s a few weeks earlier, Karma quickly found a buyer for another of the artist’s works, priced at $350,000. The gallery also reported a strong VIP day, selling 16 paintings by Jacob Littlejohn, with prices reaching $65,000, alongside works by William Turnbull ($250,000), Yvonne Jacquette ($130,000), Woody de Othello ($85,000) and Henni Alftan ($65,000).

Lehmann Maupin reported strong sales across its international, largely institutionally established roster, including a new painting by McArthur Binion for $150,000, ahead of his London solo exhibition in January 2027; a work by Liza Lou for $140,000, ahead of her New York show next spring; and a new work by Alex Prager for $60,000, coinciding with the release of her debut feature film, Dreamquil. U.K.-based artists also drew collectors, with three paintings by Billy Childish placed for £50,000-60,000 each; two by Freya Douglas-Morris for £30,000-50,000 each, following her sold-out London exhibition and ahead of her New York debut; and two works by Rana Begum for £25,000-40,000 each, coinciding with her first New York solo exhibition. Two paintings by Anna Freeman Bentley sold for £25,000-30,000 each, following her recent London exhibition.

Taken together, these early results suggest that while established names continue to anchor the market, much of Frieze London’s energy comes from the chance to encounter new practices, whether overlooked figures finding renewed visibility or emerging artists gaining international attention. Increasingly, however, institutional recognition is leading the way on both sides of the market, with commercial momentum following rather than the other way around. That reversal could create space for a healthier, more reasonable market shaped by this reset.

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