London Sculpture Week might be done, but there’s a plethora of outdoor art to be enjoyed in the city this month. From Regent’s Park to Greenwich Peninsula, here are some new and existing installations to visit this October as the leaves change colour.
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s Park
The famous white tents are up in Regent’s Park, ready for the 23rd annual edition of Frieze Art Fair London, which kicks off on 9 October. This year, the pop-up venue gets ‘a ground-breaking new floorplan by design practice A Studio Between’ and will see hundreds of gallerists, representing thousands of artists from around the world, descend upon the city until 13 October 2024.
Frieze London is a ticketed event, but art lovers can explore Frieze Sculpture for free. The public outdoor exhibition is on display until 27 October in the leafy surroundings of Regent’s Park. Curated by Fatoş Üstek, this year’s installation relaxes and expands the notion of ‘sculpture’, bringing in elements of sound, light, performance, painting, video and even augmented reality for a genre-spanning display featuring the works of 22 artists. Among them are works by Leonora Carrington, Libby Heaney, Theaster Gates, Yoshitomo Nara, Fani Parali and more.
Esther Mahlangu’s Serpentine mural
Celebrated Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu has created a site-specific mural for the Serpentine Gardens this month, her first public artwork in the UK. The monumental painting, Umuntu ngumuntu ngabuntu (meaning I am because you are), celebrates community and unity, expressed through brightly coloured geometric lines, shapes and patterns drawn from matrilineal Ndebele culture. Comprising sixteen painted wooden panels, the joyful work will be on show until 28 September 2025.
Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square
The centrepiece of London Sculpture Week was the unveiling of the Fourth Plinth Commission – one of the most important art commissions in the world. Artist Teresa Margolles’s monumental sculpture Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) has been erected in Trafagar Square and features the facial casts of over 700 trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people made in Mexico and the UK. The haunting artwork is a testament to trans existence and resilience in the face of violence and oppression, with the casts mounted on a tzompantli—a historic wooden rack used by Mesoamerican civilisations to display human skulls used in sacrifice. The casts will gradually erode over the next 18 months as the seasons change, leaving the structure exposed. Read more.
The Artist’s Garden, Temple Station
London’s secret rooftop sculpture garden is located atop Temple Station and is the first in the world dedicated solely to women artists. The new show Mary, Mary, takes the 18th-century English nursery rhyme as its starting point and invites nine women artists to subvert and interrogate the idea of ‘forceful’ or ‘contrary’ women and the gendered architecture of the public space. Works vary wildly, from a kinetic ‘can-can’ sculpture to a colourful timber ‘forest’ and artist’s hut wrapped in a photographic print of a Scottish woodland. Find out more.
Supersized bindis at the Southbank Centre
Cross the Millennium Bridge and head to the Southbank, where British-Indian artist Bharti Kher has covered the brutalist exterior of the Hayward Gallery with giant, colourful bindis for her installation, Target Queen. The sculptures denote the ‘third eye’, a link between the real and the spiritual conceptual worlds and are a recurrent motif in Kher’s works. The colourful installation pops against the utilitarian concrete of the building and the yellowing leaves of trees along the South bank.
Yayoi Kusama at Liverpool Street Station
In August, Liverpool Street Station entrance welcomed Infinite Accumulation—the largest permanent public Yayoi Kusama sculpture in the UK. The work revisits familiar motifs, reimagining her polka dots and Narcissus balls as a series of interconnected steel orbs zipping above the heads of commuters outside the new Elizabeth Line entrance. The sculpture reaches over 10 metres high and covers an area of approximately 100 metres in length, reflecting the urban architecture on its surface.
Infinite Accumulation preceded the opening of Kusama’s solo exhibition, Every Day I Pray For Love, at Victoria Miro, which runs until 2 November and has been a sell-out success, cementing the 95-year-old’s place in the public affection. It is also the last piece of art to be installed and commissioned as part of the Crossrail Art Programme for the Elizabeth Line.
The Line Sculpture Trail, East London
The Line is a free, 4.8m public art trail in London that runs between The O2 and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, following the Lea Navigation and the line of the Greenwich Meridian. The first sculpture, Anish Kapoor’s beacon-like ArcelorMittal Orbit, was installed for the London 2012 Olympics, with over a dozen added over the following decade, including works by Tracey Emin, Thomas Price, Richard Wilson, Yinka Ilori and Michael Landy.
The Tide, Greenwich Peninsula
The Tide is a 5 km network of public spaces and gardens snaking across Greenwich Peninsula, connected by an elevated and at-level walkway. This pocket of London has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade, with the marquee opening of the Design District and a flourish of mixed-use developments taking root in the formerly industrial landscape. Among its outdoor offerings is a kaleidoscopic dripping staircase by Turner-prize nominee Ian Davenport.
Sculpture in The City
Opened in July but running through spring 2025, Sculpture in the City brings ten works by the likes of Richard Mackness, Ida Ekblad, Julian Opie, and Samuel Ross to locations in and around The City of London. The treasure trail is a great way to see familiar grounds with fresh eyes. See more.
