Eight months after their gallery collapsed, the artists of Stephen Friedman Gallery staged a remarkable comeback on the opening day of Frieze London. Denzil Forrester, newly signed by Thaddaeus Ropac, sold two towering nightclub paintings for £175,000 apiece within the fair's first hour, both going to collectors encountering his work for the first time. Nearby, Victoria Miro's stand featured two luminous still-lifes by Clare Woods, another new signing, which also found buyers in the opening hours.

Friedman's closure in February 2026, after 30 years on Mayfair's Old Burlington Street and then Cork Street, was one of the most jolting events of the London market in recent years. The gallery represented 39 artists and estates, and later reporting put the total owed to creditors at £7.8 million, including more than £800,000 owed to artists themselves. Many in the trade read the collapse as a symptom of a market in distress.

This week's fair is the first Frieze London since the dissolution, and Friedman's former artists are scattering to new homes. Josh Lilley's stand showed four sculptures by Holly Hendry, whose representation was announced only this week; Sarah Ball, signed by Pilar Corrias last month, presented new paintings in her new gallery's viewing room; and paintings by Caroline Walker appeared with Grimm Gallery and Ingleby Gallery. Forrester, courted by several galleries on advice from Peter Doig, chose Ropac for his London debut and will open a show there next June. Not everyone has landed: Andreas Eriksson and Claire Barclay have no UK representation at present, and several artists declined to comment, wary of letting a market narrative overshadow the work.

The speed of the sales suggests the diaspora is more than surviving. Woods has now sold out at both Frieze London and last month's Armory Show in New York, with her first Miro solo due in February. After one of the ugliest gallery failures of the year, the market's verdict on the artists themselves arrived fast — and in their favour.