Quiet Confidence: Highlights from Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025

This year’s edition of Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025 reaffirmed the fairs' status for both their commercial strength and cultural impact. With over 280 galleries across both fairs and an unmistakable curatorial shift toward clarity, cross-generational dialogue, and inclusivity, this edition was distinguished by quiet ambition over spectacle.

Wallpaper Magazine

As Kate Brown, Senior Editor of Artnet News, observed, “the mood at Frieze this year is cautious but not defeated,”with an overall approach that appears more pragmatic, aligned with the need to navigate a market currently in flux. However, galleries seemed remarkably resilient despite rising costs and leaner operations, artworks were selling. In many cases, deals were closed during preview days or even pre-sold.

Sales remained strong, with prices ranging from works by emerging artists at $10,000 to blue-chip pieces like Lalanne’s sheep sculptures (upwards of €600,000), and even the much-discussed triceratops skull, which sold for £650,000.

Frieze, 2025 

The fair’s curatorial direction, particularly within the Focus section, reflected a shift in how younger galleries are engaging with art fairs. The goal, as stated by the Focus curators, was not simply to fill booths but to “create a story” with an emphasis on global diversity, media experimentation, and risk-taking.

Among the standout presentations was Coulisse, showing Rafal Zajko, whose sculptural environments explore Eastern European queer futurism. Emerging galleries in this section benefited not only from visibility but also from structural support, such as a bursary from Stone Island, a sign of how strategic partnerships are reshaping the art fair model and providing critical support to younger spaces.

A personal highlight was Timothy Taylor’s solo booth of new works by Daniel Crews-Chubb, marking the debut of the artist’s sculptural practice alongside recent paintings. The works explored tensions between figuration and abstraction, beauty and disorder, all through Crews-Chubb’s signature material richness.

Daniel Crews-Chubb, 2025, Timothy Taylor

Frieze Masters 2025 introduced a new section titled Reflections, designed to collapse temporal boundaries by presenting material culture and fine art across centuries. Standout booths included Salomon Lilian’s presentation of a Rubens panel, and rare Pharaonic reliefs, both underscoring a continued curatorial and market appetite for historical rediscovery.

Gazelli Art House’s presented works by Harold Cohen (1928–2016), a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence as a creative tool. The booth featured Cohen’s original Drawing Machine (1980), alongside a screen-based display of the revived AARON code, extending his digital legacy into the present. This echoed the Whitney Museum’s 2024 retrospective, which reintroduced live plotting to public audiences for the first time in decades.

Harold Cohen, Outward, 1966

One of the defining characteristics of Frieze 2025 was its global plurality. From Indian galleries presenting Anju Dodiya’s psychologically charged interiors to Japanese booths by Taka Ishii Gallery, featuring Hiroka Yamashita and Goro Kakei, the fair moved beyond a traditionally Western-centric perspective.

Particularly interesting was the spotlight on overlooked or rediscovered artists, such as Janice Biala (with Berry Campbell) and Samia Halaby, both signaling a growing institutional and market commitment to rewriting contemporary narratives through more inclusive and corrective lenses.

Frieze 2025 may not have been the flashiest edition at present, but it stood out for its coherence and maturity. As one gallerist put it, “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” and the market is adapting to this slower and steadier approach. This year’s fair demonstrated that while commerce remains central, the focus is shifting toward legacy-building and narrative-driven presentation.

Balancing historic reverence, experimental energy, and market pragmatism, Frieze 2025 proved that art fairs can still be sites of curatorial innovation, not just a commercial opportunity.