Frieze 2025: Sculptures That Captivate

Alla Yaskovets
Sep 26
2 min read

This year’s Frieze Sculpture turns Regent’s Park into an open-air gallery. Under the curatorial theme “In the Shadows” by Fatoş Üstek, 14 international artists rethink sculpture as a space of fragility, memory and transformation. From roots erupting through the ground to birdsong frozen in bronze, the works invite viewers to see sculpture not as static, but as alive with tension, rhythm and transformation.

At Visualista, we’ve picked out the most visually striking works shaping the atmosphere of this year’s show.

Andy Holden – Auguries (Lament)

Three bronzes echo the fluctuating waveforms of birdsong, translating the calls of a nightingale, cuckoo and crow into sculptural form. Both poetic and ominous, the work draws attention to species under threat while casting sound into permanence.

Henrique Oliveira – Desnatureza 8

Appearing like vast roots tearing through the park, Oliveira’s organic form is in fact built from reclaimed timber and debris. Hovering between natural and artificial, it captures nature’s fragility amid human disruption.

Elmgreen & Dragset – Life Rings, Fig. 3

Elmgreen & Dragset stack oversized lifebuoys into a towering sculpture — but rendered in steel. The rescue device becomes useless, stripped of its function, transforming into a monument. The ‘powerless structure’ reflects on failed ideals and the fragility of social systems.

David Altmejd – Nymph 1, 2, 3

Three bronze figures caught mid-motion blur the line between grace and chaos. Textures shift from fluid to raw, capturing Altmejd’s signature exploration of transformation and instability. Among them, you sense not only movement but the potential to change, distort, or vanish entirely.

Assemble – Fibredog

Built from branches, thatch and wood gathered from Regent’s Park, Fibredog is the biggest sculpture in the park. Standing between ritual and architecture, it reflects Assemble’s ongoing interest in community, craft and shared space. The form raises questions: is it a living creature or a still structure, a playful object or a sacred symbol, a statement of protest or a site for reflection? It invites engagement rather than answers, imagined as a stake in the ground to which people might return, bringing their own meanings and rituals.

Erwin Wurm – Ghost (Substitutes)

The headless aluminium garment is empty but full of presence. The artist removes the body while keeping its shape, turning clothing into a striking reflection on our identity and what remains when the appearance is left to stand alone.

Frieze Sculpture 2025 is on view in Regent’s Park, London until November 2.