Wall-Based Work
(a Trompe LOL)
The Frieze London Artist Award 2025 is co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma.
Previous recipients of the Frieze Artist Award include Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020), Sung Tieu (2021), Abbas Zahedi (2022), Adham Faramawy (2023), and Lawrence Lek (2024).
Performance times
Wednesday 15 October: 16:30
Thursday 16 October: 15:00
Friday 17 October: 16:30
Saturday 18 October: 15:00
Sunday 19 October: 16:30
Frieze London
15 - 19 October 2025
Regents Park
London, NW1 4HG
Limited edition
Sophia Al-Maria
Biblically Accurate Self Portrait (Consumer Edition), 2025
Digital collage on C-type gloss paper
29.7 x 42 cm (unframed)
Edition of 30 + 1 AP
BUY NOW
Selected press
“I’m Committing Career Suicide in the Middle of an Art Fair”: Sophia Al Maria on Her Frieze Commission - Elephant Magazine (14 October 2025)
Sophia Al-Maria perfroms stand-up for Frieze London - The Art Newspaper (15 October 2025)
‘Perfect Strangers’: Goings on Around Town at Frieze London - Ocula Magazine (21 October 2025)
Fear and loathing at Frieze - Orlando Whitfield for The Observer (24 October 2025)
Lead image
Sophia Al Maria, photo by Vasso Vu.
Frieze London Artist Award 2025
Wall-Based Work (a Trompe LOL)
Sophia Al-Maria
Forma are delighted to announce artist Sophia Al-Maria as the recipient of the 2025 Artist Award at Frieze London, in partnership with Frieze for the seventh consecutive year. In October 2025, Al-Maria will present Wall-Based Work (a Trompe LOL) — a stand-up comedy set performed inside the Frieze London tent.
Performed daily in a makeshift stand-up club inside the Frieze London tent, Wall-Based Work (a Trompe LOL) will use the language of comedy to talk about things that aren’t always funny. Al-Maria says to expect commentary on ‘white mommy issues; how Brexit is all Damon Albarn’s fault; art-world lesbian clowning; how the crusades never ended; fun facts about freeports; and the trauma bond between archetypes of king and jester.’
As questions around authorship and authenticity are reshaped by AI, the stripped-back format of live comedy becomes a stage for vulnerability, immediacy and risk — a space for collective recognition and real-time response.
Al-Maria’s performance draws on shared fears – of exposure, vulnerability and the inherent unpredictability of creative work. Al-Maria is not a comedian or a performance artist. Wall-Based Work (a Trompe LOL) is her first stand-up performance. According to the artist, it is likely to be her last.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Courtesy Frieze. Photo: Linda Nylind.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Courtesy Frieze. Photo: Linda Nylind.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
Sophia Al-Maria, Wall-Based Work (A Trompe LOL), 2025. Frieze London, 15-19 October 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze London Artist Award 2025. Photo: Forma.
The proposal was selected by a jury of leading industry professionals, including Lydia Yee (Curator and Museum Consultant) and Melanie Pocock (Artistic Director, Exhibitions at Ikon Gallery), alongside Eva Langret (Director, Frieze EMEA) and Forma's artistic Director, Chris Rawcliffe.
Chris Rawcliffe, says:
It’s an honour for Forma to once again collaborate with Frieze on the realisation of a new commission for the Frieze London Artist Award. The award champions artists who challenge the boundaries of artmaking. This year’s recipient, Sophia Al-Maria, is no exception. Celebrated for her deeply political work and astute commentary on the shifting dynamics of global power, her latest proposal comes at a pivotal moment—amid what feels like a great and spreading storm. By wielding humour as a tool for survival, she not only provokes reflection but actively reshapes the cultural conversation. In combining comedy, community and a DIY ethos, Al-Maria builds on her history of non-hierarchical, game-based collaboration with other artists, while insisting on the value of shared space, mutual care, and joyful resistance. Al-Maria is more than an artist and critic, she is a catalyst for change, and an indispensable voice in both the art world and the wider social landscape.
—
Sophia Al-Maria extends the life of her Frieze London Artist Award performance, Wall-Based Work, beyond the booth and into your collection with a printed edition, Biblically Accurate Self Portrait, 2025.
Sophia Al-Maria says:
This print is called Biblically Accurate Self Portrait, there’s a lot of art historical and pop cultural references going on in it. At the centre is me flipping off the viewer. On my forehand, wrapped in mujihad style with the protest bandana with the word ART in plain block text. There’s a reference to They Live (the inspiration of my first ever Frieze engagement back in the early 2010s), Saturn Devouring His Son, me sitting in The Fountain is a pisstake of course, but I'm actually being ground into mincemeat by the readymade while feeding internal organs to Joseph Beuys' costar- the coyote - in I Like America and America Likes Me.
All proceeds will be donated to Micro Rainbow, a London-based charity supporting LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees with housing, training and the possibility of a liveable future.
I am an immigrant in this country, and I have known many people who have sought asylum over the years,” says Sophia, "For many queer people seeking asylum, the story doesn’t get simpler when they arrive here, it just gets differently complicated, especially those from Muslim majority countries who often are encouraged to overstate the role of religion in their asylum case which in turn feeds into Islamophobic narratives fuelling a larger global story dehumanising Muslims and I feel very concerned about this.
A reversal of fortune is always possible, even if improbable.
The works are printed to order, please allow for a delivery time of up to 6-8 weeks
Sophia Al-Maria, TIGER STRIKE RED, 2022. Single-channel video (color, sound); 23:03 mins. Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London. Installation view of Sophia Al-Maria: Not My Bag, 2023, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle. Photo: Jueqian Fang.
Sophia Al-Maria, Al Atlal, 2023. Site-specific installation of artist ephemera. Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London. Installation view of Sophia Al-Maria: Not My Bag, 2023, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle. Photo: Jueqian Fang.
Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane, Grey Unpleasant Land (2024). Installation view at Spike Island, UK. Photograph by Rob Harris Courtesy of Spike Island
Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane, Grey Unpleasant Land (2024). Installation view at Spike Island, UK. Photograph by Rob Harris Courtesy of Spike Island
Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane, Grey Unpleasant Land (2024). Installation view at Spike Island, UK. Photograph by Rob Harris Courtesy of Spike Island
Detail view: Sophia Al-Maria, unpleasant feeling, 2022 Diptych c-type print, acrylic on acetate, found material, acrylic, bubble wrap, pigeon deterrent spikes, aluminium frame Each: 59 x 32.5 x 9 cm (23 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 3 1/2 in) Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London.
Sophia Al-Maria, BEAST TYPE SONG, 2019. Single-channel HD video; 38 mins, 03 secs Edition of 3 and 2 AP Photo: Copyright The Artist Courtesy of the artist, Anna Lena Films and Project Native Informant, London.
Sophia Al-Maria, Mothership, 2017. Single-channel HD video; 02 mins, 48 secs Edition of 3 and 2 AP Photo: Copyright The Artist Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London
Biographies
Sophia Al-Maria lives and labours in London. Her work spans disciplines including drawing, collage, sculpture and film, united by a preoccupation with the power of storytelling and myth and imagining revisionist histories and alternative futures. She has had her work shown at Gwangju Biennale, the New Museum and Whitney Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, and Tate Britain.
The Frieze London Artist Award 2025 is co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma.
Previous recipients of the Frieze Artist Award include Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020), Sung Tieu (2021), Abbas Zahedi (2022), Adham Faramawy (2023), and Lawrence Lek (2024).
Performance times
Wednesday 15 October: 16:30
Thursday 16 October: 15:00
Friday 17 October: 16:30
Saturday 18 October: 15:00
Sunday 19 October: 16:30
Frieze London
15 - 19 October 2025
Regents Park
London, NW1 4HG
Limited edition
Sophia Al-Maria
Biblically Accurate Self Portrait (Consumer Edition), 2025
Digital collage on C-type gloss paper
29.7 x 42 cm (unframed)
Edition of 30 + 1 AP
BUY NOW
Selected press
“I’m Committing Career Suicide in the Middle of an Art Fair”: Sophia Al Maria on Her Frieze Commission - Elephant Magazine (14 October 2025)
Sophia Al-Maria perfroms stand-up for Frieze London - The Art Newspaper (15 October 2025)
‘Perfect Strangers’: Goings on Around Town at Frieze London - Ocula Magazine (21 October 2025)
Fear and loathing at Frieze - Orlando Whitfield for The Observer (24 October 2025)
Lead image
Sophia Al Maria, photo by Vasso Vu.