In the Shadows: Frieze Sculpture 2025 Finds Power in What’s Unseen
This autumn, Frieze Sculpture returns to London’s Regent’s Park with a new curatorial premise that favours suggestion over spectacle. Running from 17 September to 2 November, the 13th edition of the open-air exhibition takes a more introspective turn, guided by a theme never before attempted in its history: “In the Shadows.”
Curated for the third year by Fatoş Üstek, the show brings together 14 artists from across the globe, each engaging with the concept of the shadow — not as a void or threat, but as a generative space. The setting, once again, is the park’s English Gardens, where the sculptures are installed not to dominate the landscape, but to inhabit it quietly.
“In the Shadows offers a curatorial perspective that embraces the unknown, the concealed and the forgotten,” Üstek explains. “Shadows are zones of potential, where stories unfold quietly yet powerfully, often out of sight.”
The idea is not purely metaphorical. Many of the works play with light and material directly, invoking physical traces of human absence and environmental loss. Others revisit myth, folklore or Indigenous memory — forms of knowledge that have long existed in the margins.
Erwin Wurm’s Ghost (Substitutes), a set of aluminium sculptural garments, floats between presence and disappearance. Andy Holden’s Auguries (Lament) casts birdcalls in bronze, preserving sound as form. Reena Saini Kallat’s Requiem (The Last Call) — a towering steel and sound installation — channels voices now silenced by ecological collapse.
Elsewhere, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith reclaims Indigenous narratives in King of the Mountain, while Burçak Bingöl works directly with clay soil from Regent’s Park to forge connections between place and memory. Henrique Oliveira’s Desnatureza 8 twists salvaged wood into muscular, organic shapes — a reminder of the latent energy in discarded matter.
“The artists this year reflect these tensions with profound insight: their works address ecological vulnerability, historical erasure and human transformation,” says Üstek.
Though grounded in contemplation, Frieze Sculpture 2025 is far from static. A number of live and participatory elements are planned across its run:
- Assemble will lead a costumed procession through the park
- Simon Hitchens will host drawing workshops and performances
- Lucía Pizzani, in collaboration with Lucia Pietroiusti, will stage ritualised actions
- Üstek will guide public walks through the exhibition she has curated
Visitors can also access a digital audio guide via the Bloomberg Connects app, featuring commentary from Üstek and behind-the-scenes insight into the curatorial thinking.
Frieze Sculpture forms part of the larger constellation that is London Sculpture Week (20–28 September), now in its fourth year. Alongside The Fourth Plinth, Sculpture in the City and The Line, it contributes to a growing recognition of London’s open spaces as sites for serious artistic engagement.
A conference at the Warburg Institute on 26 September will further explore these ideas, positioning public sculpture as both historical record and future proposition.
“My hope is that as visitors journey through The Regent’s Park,” Üstek says, “they come to see that what resides in the shadows may contain the seeds of change.”
Frieze Sculpture 2025
The Regent’s Park, London
17 September – 2 November 2025
Free admission
For full details and visitor information, visit frieze.com/frieze-sculpture.
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
