Frieze Masters leans east and south as new galleries post early sales

Dealers from Kolkata, Mumbai, Marrakech and Casablanca posted early sales as Frieze Masters opened in London with a wider map.

The Kolkata and Delhi-based gallery Akar Prakar sold three out of six works by 90-year-old painter Ganesh Haloi, according to reporting by The Art Newspaper. Drawings were priced at around £35,000 and larger paintings at around £130,000. Three found buyers fast. Confirmed buyers included Mumbai-based collector Dara Mehta and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.

This year's Frieze Masters, the fair for art made before 2000, includes more galleries from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Spotlight, the fair's section for solo presentations focused on non-Western regions and overlooked names, is part of that shift. Six galleries specialising in South Asian art were selected by Devika Singh, a former South Asian specialist curator at Tate in London who now lectures at the Courtauld Institute in London.

Mumbai-based Akara Modern, exhibiting at Frieze Masters for the first time, pre-sold two wooden wall-based works by Piraji Sagara to collectors in India. The works were priced in a range of £40,000 to £250,000. The gallery confirmed the pre-sales before the fair's public days ended.

Loft Art Gallery, based in Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco, also made its debut at the fair with work by Moroccan artist Mohamed Melehi. It sold Untitled (1967) for €180,000, with two other pieces reserved. In London, the gallery Alison Jacques presented a solo display of Filipino artist Pacita Abad, whose family left the Philippines for political reasons in 1970.

What makes this stand out for visitors is choice. Alongside long-standing Old Master and decorative arts dealers such as Colnaghi, De Jonckheere, Johnny Van Haeften and Salomon Lilian, there are first-time stands where staff can explain provenance, the documented chain of ownership, from scratch.

Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2026 run from 14 to 18 October 2026 at The Regent's Park in London, according to Frieze. Frieze Masters alone hosts more than 130 galleries. Across both fairs, almost 300 galleries from 48 countries and regions are listed.