Artists Support

Installation view, Asking for a Friend hosted by Arcadia Missa

Organised by Artists Support, hosted by Arcadia Missa

6 November–19 December 2026

Arcadia Missa (upstairs), 35 Duke St, London W1U 1LH

Asking for a Friend is a group exhibition organised by Artists Support and hosted by Arcadia Missa. Alvaro Barrington, Sanya Kantarovsky, Rene Matić, Kembra Pfahler, The PLPC, Orfeo Tagiuri and Tegen Williams are each selling one or more of their works to support a friend. Up to 80% of the sale proceeds from every work will be directed to the artist's nominated friend.

The idea for this project came from a conversation nine months ago with Rózsa Farkas, founder of Arcadia Missa. Rene Matić - who Farkas represents - wanted to make a new photographic series documenting a close friend's gender-affirming care, bearing witness to the procedure and recovery in the diaristic, raw manner for which Matić has become celebrated. The project hinged on setting aside tens of thousands of pounds to cover medical bills.

That conversation became the starting point for Asking for a Friend: an invitation to artists to show and sell their work in support of someone close to them.

That 'someone' could take many forms: the word 'friend' is used loosely and inclusively, so that each artist could support a friend or group that feels personal to them. While some are contributing to medical care, others are offering support where it is most needed. There's no further curatorial theme. Simply put, the works are brought together by each artist's wish to direct funds to someone they hold close, someone in need of a helping hand.

For Alvaro Barrington and Sanya Kantarovsky, supporting the causes they care about - whether charities, institutions, friends, artists or friends who are artists - is an extension of their work. For this exhibition, both have made new paintings, each sold to support a fellow artist whose practice they believe in.

Kantarovsky has long championed his contemporaries, curating group shows and co-organising benefit exhibitions. He often donates his work to raise awareness and funds for the causes he cares about, including the New York Food Bank and RxART, which brings art into children's hospitals. Kantarovsky is showing his new painting, Kolkhoz Woman. A kolkhoz was a Soviet collective farm, run in principle as a cooperative whose members shared in its earnings: a fitting reference for an exhibition built on artists sharing theirs.

Artist and performer Kembra Pfahler appropriates the femlin, Playboy's hypersexualised cartoon, as a vehicle for radical self-portraiture. Pfahler's Non-Fiction Illustrations record the actions and costumes of performances by her theatrical death-rock band, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. The collage, depicting three of Pfahler's characteristic figures dressed in matching outfits and holding hands, will help fund the release of the band's fifth album, their first in fifteen years.

The PLPC is a shadow puppet theatre corporation made up of Jack Lambert, Luca Mantero, Mack Pegram, Katy Stubbs, Tess Tomassini and Tegen Williams. For this exhibition, it is presenting its first sculpture, Proposal for the Fourth Plinth. Money generated from the sale of this work, and from ticket sales for a new performance staged at Arcadia Missa on 11 and 12 December, will be donated to Friends of The PLPC, a foundation set up to support the creative needs of The PLPC’s friends. The PLPC has been commissioned by Bold Tendencies for its 2027 programme, Counterstates.

Tegen Williams, multidisciplinary artist, director, member of The PLPC and lead singer of the band Memory of Speke, is participating with three paintings. Drawn to images of power, Williams takes cues from propaganda posters, political poses, crowds and hierarchies, working in paint, chalk, graphite and materials found in the studio.The works on view share a restlessness, each approaching mark-making differently, from etched incisions to a chalky haze and free, fluid, calligraphic strokes. Williams' paintings, including a recent self-portrait, will contribute towards grief therapy for two of the artist's young family members.

Orfeo Tagiuri has painted directly onto wooden classroom chairs. On the two seats is the Tree of Amalion, a tree J.R.R. Tolkien would doodle, each flower representing a poem or tale he wanted to write but never had time to pursue. Tagiuri's chosen friend is Lesley Pierre Paul, founder of the New Vision Art School in Haiti, which gives children free art education and materials and encourages them to use their creativity for both personal growth and financial independence.

Rene Matić's photographs in Asking for a Friend are part of a 2022 commission from the Martin Parr Foundation, where these works were first exhibited. They reflect the artist's way of finding quiet, tender moments in celebration, and commotion in the banality of everyday life. Their sale will go towards the close friend whose care first prompted this exhibition.

With special thanks to Arcadia Missa, Emalin and Modern Art for their ongoing commitment to supporting the artists they work with, and to Metropolitan Art Transport.