Arcadia Missa in London opened two exhibitions on 6 November 2026: the group show Artists Support. Asking for a Friend and Big Nation, a solo presentation by Coumba Samba. The group show turns the usual commercial exhibition into an act of mutual aid: works on sale are intended to raise money for friends of the artists involved, including people facing medical costs.

The participating artists are Alvaro Barrington, Sanya Kantarovsky, Rene Matić, Kembra Pfahler, The PLPC, Orfeo Tagiuri and Tegen Williams. The premise is simple, artists using their own market to support people close to them, and it gives the show a different charge from a standard group hang: every sale is also a contribution.

Running alongside it, Coumba Samba's Big Nation presents paintings built around chevron patterns and police vehicles, imagery that points to authority, movement and the street. The pairing sets a politically alert solo show against a group exhibition organised around care and solidarity.

Arcadia Missa is a small independent gallery in London. The two shows run together, offering a snapshot of a gallery using its walls for both new painting and practical support, and of artists treating an exhibition as a way to look after their own community.

Group exhibitions that double as fundraisers have become a recurring feature of London's independent gallery scene, where small spaces often act as meeting points for artists as much as salesrooms. Artists Support. Asking for a Friend makes that function explicit: the exhibition is organised around the people it is trying to help, and the usual question of what a show is for is answered in practical terms, by the money it raises.