Art world report·London
Alligator Myths, Glass Olives and Climbable Paolozzi: The 10 Booths to Beat at Frieze London and Masters
Artsy named ten standout booths from Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2026, from White Cube's Ilana Savdie paintings and Goodman's sold-out Unathi Mkonto sculptures to a joint Zwirner–Miro Alice Neel presentation and rarely seen early Ibrahim El-Salahi works at Vigo Gallery.
With Frieze London and Frieze Masters past their VIP days and open to the public, Artsy has picked the ten booths that best capture this year's fairs in Regent's Park. Across the two tents — 172 galleries at the contemporary fair and 140 at Masters — the mood is buoyant, with sold-out presentations reported at Gagosian, Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, Alice Amati and a.SQUIRE, and Hauser & Wirth placing a Jan Brueghel the Elder still life at around £5 million.
At Frieze London, White Cube pairs new alligator-haunted paintings by Ilana Savdie — the carnivalesque myth of Barranquilla's "alligator man" woven into fluorescent canvases priced from $15,000 to $325,000 — with a metal grid of twentieth-century masters who inspired her, from Marlene Dumas to Salvador Dalí. Goodman Gallery's single-artist booth of Unathi Mkonto's beechwood tree-forms, nominated by Yinka Shonibare for the Artist-to-Artist section, sold out between £8,000 and £15,000. Public Gallery's Focus presentation turns Steph Huang's glass groceries — oversized olives, syrup-filled bar carts — into a playful audit of consumption, while Nature Morte's "The Restless Present", curated by Fitzwilliam curator Habda Rashid, spotlights South Asian and diaspora artists questioning empire and modernity.
At Frieze Masters, the joint David Zwirner and Victoria Miro booth dedicates itself to Alice Neel's portraits of queer sitters, including her 1966 Allen Ginsberg, under the fair's new "Queering Modernism" banner. Takato Kano shows woodblock experimenter Shiko Munakata's reverse-colored washi works from £9,000 to £650,000, and Vigo Gallery unveils rarely exhibited early paintings by Sudanese modernist Ibrahim El-Salahi — the "Pre-Pixel" grid compositions from his Slade years, priced £145,000 to £400,000.
Maruani Mercier anchors its stand with George Rickey's kinetic sculptures hanging overhead alongside Albers, Baselitz and Ruscha, while Bowman Sculpture exhibits playable 1970s works by Eduardo Paolozzi, made for climbing and priced at £120,000 each, next to Rodin and Zadkine. Together the selections trace a fair week in which historical depth and emerging practices are selling side by side.
