How public galleries buy art at Frieze London, from Tate to Kendal

Tate bought two works at Frieze London and Frieze Masters. The Art Newspaper reports that a new £30,000 prize will bring Okiki Akinfe's painting to Abbot Hall.

By Artcestry x Unframed21 Oct 2026, 09:43 UTC3 min read

Peace Unknown, 2026, by Michaela Yearwood-Dan: glitter, glass beads, paper, ribbon, lustred earthenware and oil on canvas — Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Peace Unknown, 2026, glitter, glass beads, paper, ribbon, lustred earthenware and oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Boesky Gallery. Photo © Tate (Sonal Bakrania & Matt Greenwood). Tate, image from the cited coverage, used under fair dealing for reporting current events | Fair dealing, reporting current events | resized

Why it matters

Tate credits named supporters for its Frieze purchases, so readers can see who helps fund a national collection. It also lists earlier fair purchases now on display, which readers can visit.

You can already see art that Tate bought at earlier Frieze fairs. Two paintings acquired in 2024 are in Mohammed Z Rahman's Art Now display at Tate Britain. Bark paintings by Naminapu Maymuru-White, also bought in 2024, sit in the Gathering Ground display at Tate Modern. The gallery lists works by Frida Orupabo, Tessa Boffin, Tourmaline, Rita Keegan and Adam Farah-Saad among other recent fair buys on display.

This year, the gallery added two more works at the fairs. Michaela Yearwood-Dan's Peace Unknown, from 2026, came from Hauser & Wirth at Frieze London. Yearwood-Dan was born in London in 1994, according to the release. Glitter, glass beads, paper, ribbon, lustred earthenware and oil on canvas make up the work. It measures 2200 by 2200 millimetres.

A second purchase came from Frieze Masters. Luis Fernando Zapata, listed under Colombia with dates of 1951 to 1994, made Barge in 1992. It is natural pigments on hand-moulded papier-mâché, and it measures 1860 by 620 by 100 millimetres. The gallery acquired it from Galería Elvira Moreno and Alonso Garcés Galería.

Who paid for the buying

Both works came through the Frieze Tate Fund 2026. Supporters such as Alexander Lewis helped make the fund possible, the release says. The release gives no prices for either work. Karin Hindsbo, Tate's Interim Director, says the works "represent varied and complex approaches to materiality". The gallery adds that it has acquired over 180 works by more than 100 artists at Frieze London since 2003.

A new prize sends a painting to Kendal

A separate prize also made news at Frieze London, The Art Newspaper reports. Called the Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund, it is a £30,000 purchase prize for an emerging artist in the Focus section of Frieze. The Contemporary Art Society runs the fund and is marking its tenth anniversary of acquiring works for public institutions in the United Kingdom. Okiki Akinfe won the first award with the painting Fame is a Gun. It was shown with a lightbox and a preparatory drawing on the Ginny on Frederick stand, the paper says. Abbot Hall in Kendal will take the works into its collection. In the paper's words, it is a "powerful figurative painting".

Dasha Shenkman, who supports the fund, told The Art Newspaper it is "an opportunity to put my convictions into practice". Her fund helps a public institution buy a young artist's work from the Focus section of Frieze London, the interview explains. Abbot Hall gets the first purchases, the paper says.

My own art budget is small, so I will admire these from the gallery floor.

The Contemporary Art Society also runs a Collections Fund at Frieze. It calls the fund a purchase prize (an award where the money buys the work for a collection), designed to acquire major work by living artists. Its 2026 call set an application deadline of 6 May 2026 at 10am. Purchases happen at Frieze London or Frieze Masters, the society says.

To see the pattern for yourself, start with the Tate Britain and Tate Modern displays named in the release.

Would you visit?