For those already exhausted at the prospect of Frieze London, the city offers more than the big, circus-like tent in Regent’s Park. This year’s offerings are both broad and cohesive: landmark shows foregrounding Black artistic expression and postcolonial histories sit alongside explorations of modernism, abstraction, design, and sound.
At the Royal Academy, Kerry James Marshall reorders and reframes the canon of modern and contemporary figurative painting—a perfect partner to Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern, which explores the country’s recent history through its artists. Across the city—from Maureen Paley’s new East London space to Rick Owens’s Gothic furniture in the West—gallerists and artists are rethinking how art is shown and experienced. In more far-flung corners, in what were once cafés, haberdasheries, and offices, a new generation of art dealers is coming of age and reshaping the market.
Together, they reflect a city in flux, where shifting tastes, new collectors, and revised histories are redefining the traditions of London’s cultural season.
