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The Must-See London Exhibitions Beyond Frieze

Major surveys of Cecilia Vicuña and Salman Toor share the spotlight with Issy Wood’s self-portraits at the National Portrait Gallery and Sam Doyle’s first U.K. solo outing, while smaller project spaces round out a week of openings across the city.

In October, the art world's focus shifts back to Europe, where its two longtime capitals, London and Paris, compete for the spotlight in a two-week marathon that sees fairs and openings unfolding back to back with the U.K. marquee sales in the middle of it all. Even before Frieze and Frieze Masters open to VIPs tomorrow (Oct. 14), London is buzzing from the weekend's round of openings at galleries, museums and cultural spaces across its sprawling geography. Further enriching the art week is a growing constellation of satellite fairs. This year, the London Invitational, the British edition of Dallas Invitational and the new Latin American-focused Paraíso join 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Minor Attraction (now in its second edition) and PAD London. What follows is our curated list of 10 exhibitions to catch in London before you head off to Paris.

The best art in London right now

Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall Commission

Issy Wood, "Self Portraits"

Cecilia Vicuña, "Living Threads"

Salman Toor, "Someone Likes You"

"The Bright Eyes of Children"

Cece Phillips, "All the corners that are left"

Sam Doyle, "What I Paint Is History”

Lorna Simpson and Cindy Sherman

Emanuel Carvalho, "postcard, fever"

Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall Commission

Through April 11, 2027

This year's highly anticipated Turbine Hall commission at Tate Modern went to Lebanese-born, Paris-based artist and composer Tarek Atoui, who has transformed the monumental space into a multisensory soundscape blending music, technology, sculpture and performance. In his practice, music serves both as a storytelling device and as a material for building layered phenomenological environments that carry visitors through histories, cultures and the exchanges between them. His installations often function as both sculptural environments and playable systems, bringing together custom-built instruments, microphones, speakers and acoustic devices; here, he embraces a new level of unpredictability and improvisation, creating a wide-ranging, evolving sensory journey that leaves room for imagination.

Issy Wood, "Self Portraits"

National Portrait Gallery

Through February 28, 2027

During Frieze Week, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a “Contemporary Conversations” hang featuring recent acquisitions by Barbara Walker, Elizabeth Peyton and Catherine Opie. The museum's newly launched "Artist Focus" series, meanwhile, turns the spotlight on Issy Wood, bringing together 12 works from a series she began in 2020 in the first dedicated presentation of the artist's self-portraits. While in dialogue with art history, Wood's portraits feel far more fragmentary and cinematic; using extreme cropping, masks, distorted framing and partial views of the body, the artist adds a layer of psychological inquiry into identity and how we project and perceive it. The result is a series of images that speak, more or less directly, to today's impossible demand for optimization through self-care.

Cecilia Vicuña, "Living Threads"

Through February 14, 2027

Cecilia........

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