This year’s Frieze Week began with a rush of creative energy as UNIT hosted an exclusive opening party on Monday, October 13, blending art, music, and the glamour of London’s high-society set. The evening unfolded at MAINE Mayfair, where guests were greeted with chilled champagne and a live art performance by Julie Verhoeven, whose expressive gestures set an electric tone for the night.
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London and MAINE Mayfair.
Among the crowd were art world figures and tastemakers including Stanley Zhu, TigerLily Taylor, Zoe Zimmer, Twinkle Khanna, and Isabella Charlotta Poppius, joined by collectors, curators, and musicians in a heady mix of celebration and style. GHOST LABS cocktails and VOSS water flowed freely, accompanied by a menu of refined bites from MAINE’s renowned kitchen, while the atmosphere pulsed with an undercurrent of creative camaraderie.
The soundtrack was just as inspired: Derrick McKenzie of Jamiroquai took to the decks alongside Josephine Peppink, teasing unreleased music and upcoming tour tracks in an exclusive set. Later, the spirit of London nightlife history roared back as the legendary BLITZ Club was reborn in MAINE’s iconic “powder room,” where DJ Rusty Egan and friends spun 1980s and 1990s classics deep into the early hours. A shimmering crowd—artists, designers, and collectors alike—filled the space, turning the evening into an immersive performance of its own.
As UNIT co-founders Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt noted, the event mirrored the ethos of the exhibition itself: a space for freedom, collaboration, and joyful rebellion.
“Don’t Look Back” at Unit
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London.
Currently on view at UNIT London through October 26, “Don’t Look Back” channels the raw creative drive of the 1990s and early 2000s into a vivid, multi-layered experience. Curated by Beth Greenacre and Sigrid Kirk, the exhibition reimagines that era’s irreverent energy through today’s more inclusive and intersectional lens. As the curators describe it, the show “rips up the rulebook on what an exhibition can be—reimagining that era’s defiance through today’s expansive artistic expressions.”
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London.
“‘Don’t Look Back’ channels the raw creative drive of the 1990s and early 2000s into a vivid, multi-layered experience,”
Structured like a live gig, the exhibition unfolds across distinct stages—from the “Warm-Up Stage” Quench Kiosk, designed by Giles Round and inspired by Ridley Road Market, to the “Main Stage” filled with iconic works by Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Lakwena Maciver, Mark Titchner, and Peter Liversidge, among others. Visitors move through neon-lit provocations, slogan-driven installations, and participatory moments, including Liversidge’s Sign Studio, where audiences co-create placards extending the show’s message of authorship and agency into public space.
Highlights include Pam Evelyn’s gestural triptych radiating raw momentum, Thomas J. Price’s golden bust reframing notions of cultural iconography, and Richard Wilson’s Traps, a sculptural intervention manipulating perception like a live performance. Photography plays a central role—Mary McCartney’s Embrace captures Sam Taylor-Johnson kissing a blow-up doll before a Damien Hirst piece, Sarah Lucas contributes Self-Portrait with Knickers, and Elaine Constantine’s exuberant youth portraits inject the show with cinematic verve.
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London.
Descending to the “Backstage” section, the mood turns introspective. Works by Caroline Achaintre, Abigail Lane, Linder Sterling, and Florence Peake explore embodiment, memory, and feminist subversion through textiles, ceramics, and performance. Emerging artists such as Grace Clifford, Thomas Cameron, Bex Massey, and Anna Perach continue these dialogues, linking past and present through explorations of class, identity, and humour.
Beyond the walls, “Don’t Look Back” extends into a programme of talks, performances, and workshops that revisit the cultural impact of the “Cool Britannia” years while projecting its energy forward into new creative languages.
At once a retrospective and a reawakening, “Don’t Look Back” embodies UNIT’s commitment to creativity as a living force. If the Frieze Week celebration was any indication, the gallery has not only revived the spirit of the ’90s but reframed it for a new generation—bold, inclusive, and defiantly alive.
“At once a retrospective and a reawakening, ‘Don’t Look Back’ embodies UNIT’s commitment to creativity as a living force,”
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London.
Photo by Hoda Davaine, Courtesy of UNIT London.
