In September we published a contemporary art calendar in RA Magazine to recommend some of essential shows springing up in London to coincide with the annual Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park. But our inboxes have since been submerged by emails about other interesting exhibitions across the capital: so many shows that it has been a challenge to whittle them down to the following twenty for this fortnight, each summarised in a tight ten words in the order in which they open.

Marlborough, 1 – 25 October 2014
Pastels and watercolours inspired by Portuguese folk tales and history.

33 Fitzroy Square, 6 – 28 October 2014
Stellar selection of international artists shown by London-based collector.

Waddington Custot Galleries, 8 October – 8 November 2014
Sculpture of two art titans about the ‘science of imaginary solutions’.

Paul Stolper, 9 October – 15 November 2014
Prints and multiples of pills: medicine made into minimalist art.

Barbican Centre, 9 October 2014 – 8 February 2015
Walls, floor and ceiling covered in cyan-blue cyanotype prints.

Camden Arts Centre, 10 October 2014 – 11 January 2015
Paintings, neon lights and video about how we use language.

Purdy Hicks, 10 October – 15 November 2014
Interesting new forms of portraiture by this experimental artist-photographer.

Sadie Coles, 10 October – 13 December 2014
Sculptures associated with Barney’s recent mythic film River of Fundament.

David Zwirner, 11 October – 22 November 2014
Uncanny, idiosyncratic paintings of figures in the most familiar settings.

Herald St, 11 October – 16 November 2014
Herald’s new Golden Square space presents Ekbald’s spray-gun paintings.

Parasol Unit, 12 October – 12 December 2014
Career survey of highly inventive works inspired by found materials.

Alan Cristea, 11 October – 15 November 2014
This master of tone and gesture shows colourful, complex prints.

Dominique Lévy Gallery, 13 October 2014 – 24 January 2015
Italian and American avant-gardists reunited in gallery’s inaugural exhibition.

Timur Si-Qin, 14 October – 9 November 2014
Ancestral commercialism: 3D printed fossils presented in contemporary retail environments.

Pilar Corrias, 14 October – 14 November 2014
The filmmaker’s drawings of a firefly flicker in animated form.

Ordovas, 14 October – 13 December 2014
Self-portraiture from four very famous modern and contemporary artists.

Marian Goodman, 14 October – 20 December 2014
Richter’s optically exciting paintings launch Marian Goodman’s Golden Square gallery.

Whitechapel Gallery & Tate Modern, 14 October – 14 December 2014 & 14 October 2014 – 6 April 2015
Textiles thread through Tuttle’s survey show and Turbine Hall installation.

Ambika P3, 17 – 20 October 2014
Some interesting global galleries in this small alternative to Frieze.

Serpentine Gallery, 18 – 19 October 2014
This annual all-weekender of events examines urgent environmental issues.

Sam Phillips (@SamP_London) is Editor of RA Magazine.