Theo Triantafyllidis Wins 2026 Frieze London Artist Award, Which Newly Centers AI
By Polly Watson
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Frieze has announced Athens-based artist Theo Triantafyllidis as the winner of the 2026 Frieze London Artist Award. Triantafyllidis, who trained as an architect, is known for a practice combining performance and installation with gaming and VR technology. His Feral Metaverse (Spider), 2026, a monstrous spider with which visitors can engage, will greet attendees at this year’s Frieze London, to take place at Regent’s Park October 14–18 alongside and concurrent with Frieze Masters.
The prize this year is presented for in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture and co-commissioned and coproduced with nonprofit Forma. The honor invites an artist to “experiment with advanced technologies, including AI, as a collaborative tool,” per a press release. Working with Google Arts & Cultures, Triantafyllidis created his arachnid-like sculpture as a kind of multiplayer game offering users the chance to “unlock different dystopian worlds without traditional communication methods.” Visitors, who are invited to “embrace the feral,” may climb on and hang from the work.
‘With Feral Metaverse (Spider), Theo has created something that demands physical presence—you have to be there, in the room, climbing it, playing it, figuring it out with strangers,” said Eva Langret, director of Frieze EMEA in a statement. “We are proud to present it at Frieze London this October.”
“It’s a great honor to be given this kind of opportunity at such a key moment in my practice. I get to assemble my team in Athens and push both the game and the sculptural form further than before, with a group of people who really believe in the project and the vision,” said Triantafyllidis in a statement. “It feels like a supported leap of faith, and a real next step for the work.”
Established in 2014, the Frieze London Artist Award honors artists at a crucial point in their careers and funds the realization of a new work to be presented at the London fair. Recent past winners include Sophia Al-Maria (2025), Lawrence Lek (2024), Adham Faramawy (2023), Abbas Zahedi (2022), Sung Tieu (2021), Alberta Whittle (2020) and Himali Singh Soin (2019).
This article was originally published by Artforum.