Frieze 2026 at Cork Street

Frieze Week kicks off at Cork Street Galleries with exhibition openings, candid talks with artists and artist-led tours. More than fourteen exhibitions are presented across the street to coincide with the annual international spotlight on London that Frieze London and Frieze Masters provide.

Frieze No.9 Cork Street will celebrate its 5th anniversary on Cork Street with the October programme including New York gallery P·P·O·W who will present ‘Act Natural’, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based painter Robin F. Williams while The Third Line (Dubai) will present Jordan Nassar’s ‘No History of Shapes / لا تاريخ للأشكال,’ the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. On Friday 16 October (16:00 – 18:00), Robin F. Williams will be joined by UK-based artist Suzanne Treister for a conversation moderated by Hannah Woods, Associate Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, at Frieze No.9 Cork Street.

CATALOGUE Issue 9.0, Cork Street Galleries’ official journal of contemporary art, is guest edited by writer, curator and broadcaster Ekow Eshun. To celebrate the launch, Cork Street Galleries and Waddington Custot will present an in conversation with the artists Alex Margo Arden, Mahtab Hussain and Lindsey Mendick, Chaired by Ekow Eshun. Taking place on 17 October at 14:00, the discussion will centre around the tone and texture of Britain today.

Waddington Custot will also host guests on Saturday 17 October at 11am, where British artist Ian Davenport will provide an intimate tour of his survey exhibition ‘Reflections’, a show that celebrates the remarkable breadth of the artist’s career.

MASSIMODECARLO will stage a solo exhibition by Jonathan Gardner, which explores the artist’s studio as a subject – the artist’s first show in their London gallery. The exhibition previews on Monday 12 October (18:00 – 20:00).

Nahmad Projects presents a series of new paintings by Anna Freeman Bentley in dialogue with 20th Century Masters – also taking the artist’s studio as a subject – with an exhibition preview taking place on Tuesday 13 October from 18:00 – 20:00. Further exhibition previews taking place on the street on 13 October include an exhibition examining a pivotal moment in William Crozier’s career at Flowers Gallery – ‘William Crozier: Dance of the Living 1961-1974’ (18:00 – 20:00) and ‘Opening Lines’, a solo show dedicated to recent drawings by Charles Poulson at Messums London (18:00 – 20:00).

Goodman Gallery presents the global premiere of William Kentridge’s new stop-animation film, A Nicely Built City (Never Resists Destruction). The film forms part of a wide-ranging presentation of new drawings, sculptures and editioned works on paper linked to two major projects, shown together in Goodman Gallery’s London gallery under the title ‘A Nicely Built City’. Teresa Solar Abboud’s first exhibition in the UK is staged at Lehmann Maupin’s London gallery. The artist’s multidisciplinary practice explores ideas of interrelation, hybridity, and metamorphosis through sculpture, works on paper, installation, and video.

Alison Jacques will display an exhibition of works on paper by Graham Little featuring new works made between 2025 and 2026 and Holtermann Fine Art continues the exhibition ‘Glowing Phalanges’, a solo show by Ahmed Umar. Alon Zakaim Fine Art presents an exhibition of new and recent works by contemporary British artist Clive Head while at Osborne Samuel the gallery is exhibiting Lynn Chadwick alongside Modern British artworks. Sam Fogg’s group exhibition ‘Romanesque’ examines the classification, which has its roots not in the Middle Ages, but in the nineteenth century.

The street’s permanent roster of galleries includes Alison Jacques, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, Flowers Gallery, Sam Fogg, Frieze No.9 Cork Street, Goodman Gallery, Holtermann Fine Art, Lehmann Maupin, MASSIMODECARLO, Messums London, Nahmad Projects | Helly Nahmad Gallery, Osborne Samuel, and Waddington Custot.

Launch of CATALOGUE issue 9.0, Saturday 17 October 2026, 14:00: Ekow Eshun in conversation with Alex Margo Arden, Mahtab Hussain and Lindsey Mendick

CATALOGUE issue 9.0 is guest edited by Ekow Eshun, a special editorial project inspired by ‘British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers’. Through a collection of images, the issue explores the tone and texture of Britain today. The contributions from artists are less about direct or literal representations of Britain, and more about images that evoke the mood or atmosphere or feeling of our times – what it feels like to be part of Britain today, a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century.

To launch the issue, Cork Street Galleries and Waddington Custot present an in conversation with the artists Alex Margo Arden, Mahtab Hussain and Lindsey Mendick, Chaired by Ekow Eshun. The discussion will centre around the tone and texture of Britain today.

Saturday 17 October, 14:00. RSVP essential: corkstreetgalleries@gillianmcvey.com

Coffees and pastries will be available from Bar Finch at the Hatch – 31 Cork Street – open all day on Saturday.

ALISON JACQUES (22 Cork Street) presents a solo exhibition by Graham Little (b.1972, Dundee, UK). Working delicately with gouache on paper, Little constructs intricate paintings from carefully staged arrangements assembled in his studio using cut paper, found objects gathered from the streets around his home, friends posing as models and, occasionally, imagery drawn from books in his personal collection. Conceived over months – and often years – while Little’s interest in perceived beauty cannot be underplayed, his compositions are often characterised by the psychological blemishes that beauty cannot mask: distraction, disinterest and distance, emptiness cloaked in aesthetic sheen.

Viewing from 9 October – 14 November 2026.

A preview will take place on 8 October from 18:00 – 20:00.

ALON ZAKAIM FINE ART (27 Cork Street) is delighted to present an exhibition of new and recent works by contemporary British artist Clive Head. At its heart is a series of eight large-scale paintings, displayed across two floors alongside drawings, works from his ‘Visionary Series’, and complementary works from the gallery. Together, they offer an insight into Head’s evolving approach to painting, revealing the processes, themes and visual connections that underpin his work.

Viewing from 9 October – 20 November 2026.

A preview will take place on Thursday 8 October, 18:00 – 20:00. RSVP is necessary to attend: rsvp@alonzakaim.com.

FLOWERS GALLERY (21 Cork Street) presents ‘William Crozier: Dance of the Living, 1961–1974’, an exhibition exploring a pivotal period in the artist’s career when he left behind the dark pastoral images with which he made his reputation in the late 1950s and, profoundly affected by post-war existentialist philosophy, he challenged himself to create a contemporary image of the human condition through figure and landscape.

Viewing from 14 October – 14 November 2026.

A preview will take place on Tuesday 13 October, 18:00 – 20:00.

SAM FOGG (15D Clifford Street) presents ‘Romanesque’. Why is the art of this period, so characterised by expansion and ambition, called ‘Romanesque’? The classification has its roots not in the Middle Ages, but in the nineteenth century. Driven by the spirit of the moment to classify and categorise, antiquarians recognised the influence of the Roman past on the period. In many ways, it is clear that the artists of this period were indeed looking to the visual splendour of Ancient Rome, and objects in this exhibition confirm this relationship: capitals burst with Corinthian acanthus leaves, and stone heads are executed with a rounded modelling that nods to Roman examples.

Viewing until 22 October 2026.

FRIEZE NO.9 CORK STREET (9 Cork Street). Coinciding with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, the October exhibition programme at Frieze No.9 Cork Street also marks the gallery’s fifth anniversary. New York gallery P·P·O·W will present ‘Act Natural’, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based painter Robin F. Williams – both the artist’s first exhibition in the UK and P·P·O·W’s first international pop-up presentation. The Third Line (Dubai) will present Jordan Nassar’s ‘No History of Shapes’ / لا تاريخ للأشكال,’ the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, bringing together a new body of multi-panel embroidery works and mosaics that draw on the history and visual traditions of Palestine. At P·P·O·W, Robin F. Williams fuses imagery drawn from social media with references spanning art history, literature and advertising to build narrative compositions, working with a technical control that has made them one of the more distinctive painters at work today. The exhibition brings together a new body of paintings and works on paper.

Jordan Nassar’s embroidered panels at The Third Line introduce a new geometric language shaped by Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s ‘Convertible’ series, continuing Nassar’s ongoing study of colour and pattern. The mosaics reconstruct fragments of a Byzantine mosaic found in northern Gaza, inviting viewers to imagine the whole from what remains.

Viewing from 9 to 24 October 2026.

Exhibition previews will take place on 8 October, 18:00 – 20:00.

Robin F. Williams will be joined by UK-based artist Suzanne Treister for a conversation moderated by Hannah Woods, Associate Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, at Frieze No.9 Cork Street on Friday 16 October, 16:00 – 18:00.

LEHMANN MAUPIN (9 Cork Street) presents ‘Atlantic Ridge Multiplicity’, an exhibition of new work from Madrid-based artist Teresa Solar Abboud. Her diverse bodies of work offer speculative reimaginings of both the known and the unknown world, engaging themes ranging from subterranean landscapes and ecological entanglements, to subatomic dynamics and organic processes mapped across deep time. ‘Atlantic Ridge Multiplicity’ marks Solar Abboud’s first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.

Viewing until 31 October 2026.

GOODMAN GALLERY (26 Cork Street) presents the global premiere of South African artist and theatre director William Kentridge’s new stop-animation film, A Nicely Built City (Never Resists Destruction), the twelfth film in his globally acclaimed cycle of ‘Drawings for Projection (1989 – ongoing)’. Characterised by the artist as a return to basics, in particular to charcoal drawing and filmmaking, the exhibition includes a studio-like display of original drawings from A Nicely Built City (Never Resists Destruction). They are presented alongside new work linked to Kentridge’s recent production of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the 2026 Glyndebourne Festival, notably a Pepper’s Ghost film installation integrating workshop footage with sculptures and works on paper.

Viewing until 7 November 2026.

HOLTERMANN FINE ART (30 Cork Street) is delighted to continue the solo exhibition ‘Glowing Phalanges’ by Ahmed Umar. ‘Glowing Phalanges’ forms part of Umar’s ongoing project ‘Forbidden Prayers’, a body of work he has been developing since 2018. The exhibition presents a series of sculptural works in glass and mixed media; each held in acrylic casts of the artist’s right hand.

Viewing until 24 October 2026.

MASSIMODECARLO (16 Clifford Street) is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Jonathan Gardner. For his first exhibition at the gallery’s London space, Gardner takes the artist’s studio as his subject – rooms within rooms, paintings within paintings, built in equal parts from memory, imagination and art history.

Viewing from 13 October to 18 December 2026.

A preview will take place on 12 October, 18:00 – 20:00.

MESSUMS LONDON (28 Cork Street) presents ‘Opening Lines’, a solo exhibition by Charles Poulson. Drawing has, in recent years, been Charles Poulsen’s primary means of expression. Whilst traditionally regarded as a secondary, or preparatory, activity, drawing has an immediate, direct and simple effect. He says, “it evokes and suggests rather than fixes, it feels transitory and ephemeral, echoing the lives we live”. His drawings on paper are large and they comprise striking abstractions that are realised in layers of pencil, wax and gouache. They focus on, as well as contain, energy over a particular subject matter and through a harnessing of that energy, they aim to achieve a sense of stillness or balance.

Viewing from 14 October to 14 November 2026.

A preview will take place on 13 October, 18:00 – 20:00.

NAHMAD PROJECTS (2 Cork Street) is pleased to present the upcoming exhibition ‘The Studio’, showcasing a series of new paintings by Anna Freeman Bentley (b. 1982) in dialogue with 20th Century Masters. The artist’s studio has long been more than a place of work. It is a theatre of the self; a space where the act of looking turns inward, where the world is examined and reimagined. This exhibition takes that concept as its premise, spanning an entire century, it traces the studio as a living subject; from Picasso’s home-studio of the 1950’s to Anna Freeman Bentley’s East London studio of today. Exhibited alongside the works of Braque, Dufy, de Chirico, Matisse and Picasso, Anna Freeman Bentley’s paintings of her own studio – and of the studios of fellow painters – ask quietly but insistently what it has meant, and continues to mean, to claim this space as an artist.

Viewing from 14 October to 11 December 2026.

A preview will take place on 13 October from 18:00 – 20:00.

OSBORNE SAMUEL (21 Cork Street) will present an exhibition dedicated to Modern British Art to coincide with Frieze London and Frieze Masters. A major highlight is Lynn Chadwick’s Maquette II for Jubilee III, 1984.

Viewing during October 2026.

WADDINGTON CUSTOT (11-12 Cork Street) is pleased to present ‘Reflections’, a survey exhibition that celebrates the remarkable breadth of Ian Davenport’s (b. 1966) career. Spanning the late 1980s to the present, the paintings and drawings include early experimental pieces made right after Davenport graduated from Goldsmiths college, alongside the ‘Puddle Paintings’ for which he is best known. ‘Reflections’ marks Davenport’s eleventh solo exhibition with the gallery since his debut show in 1990.

Viewing until 21 November 2026.

Join British artist Ian Davenport for a tour of his survey exhibition ‘Reflections’, accompanied by coffee and pastries, Saturday 17 October, 11:00.

Cork Street Galleries is on Instagram: @corkstreetgalleries.