What’s On

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to Somerset House from 15 to 18 October 2026 for its 14th consecutive London edition, unveiling a Special Projects programme rooted in craft and cultural memory.

At its centre is Flowing Upstream, a large-scale multimedia installation in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Courtyard by Martin Wöllenstein, developed with Romeo Addai-Boateng Akoto of Ghana’s Supreme Masqueraders Society, Perve Galeria and OCUBO. The work reshapes discarded Ankos costumes into 54 modular panels tracing the outline of the African continent.

1-54 Presents returns with West Wind, a spotlight on Modernist artists from Africa and its diaspora curated by Dr. Nancy Dantas, South African-Portuguese art historian and visual studies scholar. The exhibition brings together works by Alexander ‘Skunder’ Boghossian, Bertina Lopes and Ibrahim El-Salahi, presented by Hannah O’Leary Fine Art, Selma Feriani Gallery and Vigo Gallery

In My London Rockstars, Hassan Hajjaj portrays a new generation shaping London’s cultural landscape, among them Central Cee, Slawn and Jorja Smith.

Nando’s returns with Spier Arts Trust to present Southern African artists Blessing Ntsikelelo Blaai, Lionel Tazvita Mbayiwa and Mellaney Roberts, built around a curatorial theme of belonging.

Borderlands Art presents Our Canvas Grows From The Soil, a display made entirely of barkcloth linking Ugandan artists Gloria Kiconco and Piloya Irene with London-based Othello De’Souza-Hartley.

DēpART presents Restan Lepase, in which Léon Radegonde treats history as an ongoing process, staining, burying and reassembling found surfaces.

The Midunu Institute traces Ghanaian cocoa from farm to finished product in Commodity / Couture, revealing that a farmer earns around 6p from a £4 chocolate bar.

(Re)Casting the Canon, led by Folasade Ologundudu, runs a multi-day critical writing lab exploring how African art history is shaped through collective memory.

I-JŌKŌ transforms the Navy Board Room into a Lounge with Hazendal Wine Estate, while ONMT (Office National Marocain du Tourisme), the fair’s Global Destination Partner, curates a further Lounge celebrating Moroccan culture.

ABLAKASSA presents Interlude, bridging the fair’s Marrakech edition through work by Jean Servais Somian, Arnold Fokam and King Houndekpinkou.

Kianda Contemporary Art Project surveys Angola’s artistic scene from the 1950s to today, and collector Michael Graham-Stewart spotlights sub-Saharan artists from his 50:50, Artist’s Africa collection.

An engaging Talks Programme runs throughout the fair, with panels featuring Christie’s, Oliver Enwonwu, Loeve&Co and The Defise / Almas Foundation, alongside a celebration of Addis Fine Art’s 10th anniversary.

VIP and Press Preview:
Thursday 15 October, 11:00 – 19:00

Public and VIP Opening:
Friday 16 October, 11:00 – 19:00
Saturday 17 October, 11:00 – 19:00
Sunday 18 October, 11:00 – 18:00

Frieze London returns with 172 galleries from 42 countries and regions, alongside new curated sections and gallery presentations. The invitation-only preview takes place on Wednesday 14 October, with public opening from Thursday 15 October

Frieze Masters runs alongside Frieze London, presenting art made before 2000 and bringing together specialist dealers and galleries covering art history across periods and cultures. The two fairs are around a 15-minute walk apart.

See the Artlyst guide Here

For ticket information see here

Frieze London Opening Hours 
Wednesday, October 14: 11am – 7pm (invitation only)
Thursday, October 15: 11am – 1pm (Members and Invitation only preview) 1pm – 5pm General admission tickets
Friday, October 16: 11am – 7pm
Saturday, October 17: 11am – 7pm
Sunday, October 18: 11am – 6pm
Frieze Masters Opening Hours 
Wednesday, October 14: 11am – 7pm (invitation only)
Thursday, October 15: 11am – 1pm (Members and Invitation only preview) 1pm – 7pm General admission tickets
Friday, October 16: 11am – 7pm
Saturday, October 17: 11am – 7pm
Sunday, October 18: 11am – 6pm

Cindy Sherman will debut photographic works from her new Fabric Matrons series that explores identity as a continual process of construction over a lifetime.

Shaped by a visual vocabulary of elaborately draped fabrics, the protagonists in Cindy Sherman’s images appear to dissolve into their surroundings, heightening the tension between concealment and display to examine how women negotiate visibility in different phases of life. Through these staged scenes, the artist foregrounds the performance—and perception—of both femininity and beauty, probing the societal expectations and enduring pressure to fashion and maintain a public image over time.

The works on view mark a sophisticated evolution in her engagement with fashion imagery, with many pieces incorporating fabrics and other elements drawn from Chanel’s extensive archives. Sherman’s dialogue with the fashion house dates back to her Ominous Landscapes series (2010 – 2012), in which her characters wore archival garments and accessories. The new series on view in London embraces an intensified sense of theatrical styling, drawing on the visual codes of editorial photography to disrupt the glamour of fashion with deliberate artifice and fabrication.

The Gallery has special opening hours during Frieze week:

Free

Saturday 10 October, 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday 11 October, 11 am – 5 pm
Monday 12 October, 10 am – 7 pm
Tuesday 13 October, 10 am – 8 pm
Wednesday 14 October, 10 am – 8 pm
Thursday 15 October, 10 am – 8 pm
Friday 16 October, 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday 17 October, 10 am – 7 pm
Sunday 18 October, 10 am – 6 pm

Robert Ryman believed that the best way to experience a painting is in person. His paintings, which mostly use white paint and a square format, reward close looking. He wanted you to notice everything: the texture of the paint, the brushstrokes, the material being painted on, how it’s displayed on the wall. The magic is in the feelings that arise as you attune yourself to the paintings’ similarities and differences, how they relate to each other and interact with the surrounding light and space.

Presenting over 60 works made from the mid-1950s to the early 2010s, this major new retrospective of the extraordinary American artist invites you to take a closer look. You may notice aspects of painting you haven’t seen before – and perhaps you’ll leave wondering what else in the world might become clearer if you simply slow down and tune in.

£20.50

Tue–Wed   10am–6pm
Thu–Fri   10am-8pm
Sat–Sun   10am-6pm

Curated by fashion industry game changer Edward Enninful OBE, whose lived experience of the decade informs the exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion examines a defining period in which a groundswell of creativity changed the face of British culture.

As Britain began to emerge from recession, a new dawn of optimism, freedom, and rebellion was ushered in, epitomised by a new generation of diverse creative talent. Seen through Edward Enninful’s eyes, this sense of opportunity resulted in art, design, fashion and photography fusing into one potent cultural force, signalling an audacious renewal of British spirit. The exhibition explores how long-held hierarchies were dismantled, with high art and pop culture feeding into one another, and reflects both the energy and the challenges of the decade, looking at the enduring influence of key figures who emerged during this time.

The 90s: Art and Fashion brings together photography, fashion, art and design, including iconic images by photographers including Juergen Teller, David Sims and Corinne Day. These are shown alongside the work of artists like Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Yinka Shonibare, as well as fashion film and music culture, including collections by decade defining designers Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano.

Edward Enninful OBE is one the most influential voices in fashion and culture today, bringing his perspective as curator to this exploration of the decade.

£22 / Free for Members

£20 Concessions

£5 for Tate Collective

Fall in love with Renoir and his Impressionist paintings at the National Gallery.

Discover Renoir’s gift for showing love, friendship, and everyday emotion in this Impressionist exhibition. See couples waltzing in the summer air and lovers stealing a glance, families sharing a quiet moment and friends raising a glass, all through the eyes of an artist unmatched in capturing the complexities of how people connect.

Experience Renoir at his peak in the 1860s to 1880s, experimenting with style and theme to become an innovator of Impressionism.

Walk with him through Montmartre in his iconic painting ‘Bal au Moulin de la Galette’ (1876) from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, on display in the UK for the first time. Explore the sun-dappled gardens and swirling dance halls of Paris through 40 paintings, brought together from collections across the world.

Linked through friendship and love, enjoy the tenderness and joy of some of Renoir’s most modern, uplifting and admired paintings.

Exhibition organised by the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

£20 (off-peak, Sunday-Thursday)
£25 (Friday and Saturday, and all days in the first two weeks)
Under 18s go free

The first solo exhibition in Europe of the celebrated New York-based painter Salman Toor.
The exhibition focuses on Salman Toor’s exploration of human interactions and the desire and struggle to experience a sense of belonging, both culturally and emotionally. The exhibition will bring together 19 of the artist’s most iconic, thought-provoking and at times humorous paintings, never-before-seen in Britain, that represent people in shared moments of friendship and love, as well as experiencing solitude and alienation.

While Toor’s figures and scenes are fictional, they are rooted in his personal experiences and memories. Speaking of his works, he says they “depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, Toor trained in the United States. He currently lives and works in New York. He has had major exhibitions internationally, including his acclaimed first institutional solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020-21). More recently, he participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024). The Courtauld’s exhibition will be Toor’s first solo museum show in Europe.

Toor’s work is rooted in a deep engagement with and admiration for the Old Masters, in particular Baroque and 18th century painting, and the Courtauld is a museum he particularly enjoys. One of the principal works in the exhibition, The Bar on East 13th (2019), revisits the Courtauld’s celebrated painting by Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882).

The exhibition will be accompanied by a display of Toor’s drawings in the Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery. Showcasing Toor’s mastery of drawing and the way it informs his practice as a painter, the display will include Fag Puddle in Vitrine (2021), acquired by the Courtauld in 2024.

Enter the imaginative world of British artist and designer Es Devlin in the first retrospective in Europe celebrating her 30-year creative practice across sculpture, stage design, music, language and light.

‘Es Devlin: Other Worlds’ will explore Devlin’s genre-defying practice and the vast range of projects she has brought to life around the world. On display will be artworks, installations and film alongside the largest solo presentation of Devlin’s archive to date.

Conceived and designed in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition aims to immerse visitors in Devlin’s imaginative world through a collective experience that goes beyond a traditional exhibition setting and invites new perspectives.

Exhibition highlights include a detailed replica of Devlin’s London studio, filled with her books, objects and maquettes. A wall installation entitled ‘Archive Unboxed’ will present early sketches, paintings, collages, diaries and prints that Devlin produced at school, university and art college, and has continued to create throughout her practice. These works demonstrate Devlin’s love of drawing and show how all her projects originate from this art form.

Central to the exhibition is the ’30-Year Desk’, a large-scale circular display specially designed for the gallery space. It references works including Devlin’s set design for ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ (2018), ‘Forest of Us’, shown in Miami in 2021, her work on the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony, the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, and ambitious kinetic stage sculptures created for concert tours by some of the world’s most celebrated musicians. Seen together, the installation will allow visitors to trace the evolution of Devlin’s practice and explore the recurring themes at the heart of her work.

The exhibition will also include a reinterpretation of the sculptural installation ‘Come Home Again’ – a shrine dedicated to endangered wildlife, redisplayed in a new constellation that reflects Devlin’s desire to create ever-evolving atmospheres and landscapes.

Visitors will also experience the mesmerising installation ‘Infinite Library’. All books featured in this installation were provided by Penguin Random House UK. At the end of the exhibition, they will be donated to local primary and secondary schools in support of the National Year of Reading 2026.

From £17.09

10:00 – 17:00 (Monday to Thursday)
10:00 – 18:00 (Friday to Sunday)

The story of how the Côte d’Azur dazzled modern art’s great innovators.

To Monet, it was like “swimming in blue air.” To Braque, a “joyful revelation.” Derain compared its cerulean hues to “sticks of dynamite….primed to discharge light.”

The radiance of the French Riviera left an indelible mark on artists. It roused the imaginations not only of the 19th and 20th centuries’ greatest painters – among them Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein – but giants of literature, cinema and fashion, whose works helped define the carefree glamour and eternal romance of the Côte d’Azur.

From the 1870s, the azure seas and sapphire skies of the French Riviera beckoned artists, writers, intellectuals and aristocrats searching for an escape from their drab and crowded industrial cities. What they discovered was the landscape of their dreams – one that propelled the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists to new creative heights.

This exhibition looks at how the French Riviera supported the rise of modern art – and later became a travel destination and film location that epitomised midcentury sophistication.

The story will come alive through more than 160 works, including paintings, sculpture, travel posters and film, from the 1870s to the 1960s.

Immerse yourself, just as these artists did, in a Mediterranean paradise.

Tues, Thurs, Sun – 10am-6pm

Fri-Sat 10am – 9pm

£24-26

Lead image: Raoul Dufy – Golfe Juan (detail), 1927Oil on canvas. 81.8 x 100.6 cm, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio

Gagosian presents an exhibition dedicated to René Magritte and his enduring influence on the art of today. Organised in collaboration with the Fondation Magritte, This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte examines the artist’s legacy through significant paintings, works on paper, and sculpture from all periods of his career. Featuring loans from museums and private collectors, these include some of his best-known subjects, from apples and pipes to bowler hats and cotton-cloud skies. They are juxtaposed with works by more than forty artists of different generations, many of which have been created specifically for the exhibition, in a striking installation inspired by the iconic and paradoxical aspects of Magritte’s practice.

The exhibition’s earliest painting, Les Fleurs du voyage (The Flowers of the Journey, 1926), is a symbol-laden landscape included in Magritte’s debut one-person exhibition at Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels, in 1927. Painted only a few weeks after his arrival in Paris, L’Ombre céleste (The Celestial Shade, 1927) was featured in the legendary exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1936–37. Le Parfum de l’abîme (The Scent of the Abyss, 1928) was first owned by André Breton, founder of the Surrealist movement. La Malédiction (The Curse, 1931) is the artist’s earliest single-panel canvas solely of a cloud-filled sky.

La Clef des songes (The Interpretation of Dreams, 1935) was painted for Magritte’s first solo exhibition in the United States, held at Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1936. Widely understood as a conceptual self-portrait, La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp, 1936) epitomizes Magritte’s pictorial explorations of paradox and introspection. The painting was included in Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006–07) and was made shortly before the landmark 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London, a short walk from the Grosvenor Hill gallery.

La Marche triomphale (The Triumphant March, 1948) is one of three paintings in the exhibition from the artist’s provocative vache period, a short-lived style characterized by brash colors and intentionally crude forms. La Trahison des images. Ceci continue de ne pas être une pipe (The Treachery of Images. This Is Still Not a Pipe, 1952) depicts one of Magritte’s most iconic subjects, and updates the famous text. L’Empire des lumières (The Dominion of Light, 1961), loaned by the Heidi Horten Collection, Vienna, is the final painting in the series of landscapes in which day and night coexist, and the only one to feature a bowler-hatted figure silhouetted against the sky.

Participating contemporary artists include Isabelle Albuquerque, Harold Ancart, Nairy Baghramian, Matthew Barney, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Maurizio Cattelan, Vija Celmins, Talia Chetrit, George Condo, Michael Craig-Martin, John Currin, Alex Da Corte, Dominique Fung, Lenz Geerk, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Rachel Harrison, Mona Hatoum, Allison Katz, Jeff Koons, Sean Landers, Charles LeDray, Glenn Ligon, Sarah Lucas, Victor Man, Soshiro Matsubara, Adam McEwen, Bennett Miller, Jill Mulleady, Yoko Ono, Laura Owens, Charles Ray, Giangiacomo Rossetti, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Dana Schutz, Ricky Swallow, Pol Taburet, Kazuna Taguchi, Mark Tansey, Georges Thiry, Anna Weyant, Jordan Wolfson, Issy Wood, Joanna Woś, and Joseph Yaeger.

Historical works by Celmins, Ono, Ruscha, and Saar were all made during Magritte’s lifetime, demonstrating the range of his influence in the postwar era. Saar—who passed away at ninety-nine during the exhibition’s final planning stages—is the only nonliving contemporary artist included. Many other works are being shown for the first time, including new paintings by Ancart, Geerk, Katz, Mulleady, Rossetti, Schutz, Taburet, Weyant, Woś, and Yaeger; sculptures and objects by Albuquerque, Da Corte, Fung, and Matsubara; and photography by Taguchi.

On the exhibition, Larry Gagosian notes: “It is difficult to imagine a world today without Magritte. Almost six decades after his death, his influence continues to resonate within contemporary artistic production, and beyond into the broader landscape of visual culture—shaping advertising, design, fashion, and even music. I am delighted to be presenting his work at the gallery once again, and to offer audiences a renewed opportunity to engage with the poetry, wit, and mystery that define his vision.”

Free

Tuesday–Saturday 10–6

Lead image: René Magritte, La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp), 1936, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 × 26 inches (50 × 66 cm)
© 2026 C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Private Collection, Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium

Frieze Sculpture returns to The Regent’s Park this autumn at the heart of London. Curated for a fourth year by Fatoş Üstek, Frieze Sculpture’s 14th edition includes 11 leading international artists whose work will be sited throughout the park’s historic English Gardens.

Each artist will present sculptural works that blend different media, materials, techniques, and cultural references, creating a vibrant hybrid ecology shaped by distinct spatial, social, and environmental contexts.

Artists taking part this year includes Ivana Bašić, Carolina Aguirre, Matyáš Chochola, Conrad Shawcross, Angel Otero, Douglas White, Elena Nemkova, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Tarini Sethi, and Catriona Robertson, each bringing new commissions and recent work on loan from leading international galleries.