London-based collage artist and children’s illustrator Anna Iarchuk brings a burst of warmth into November with her new exhibition Echoes of Summer, which opened on 11 November at Friendly Grounds. Supported by The Kult Talk, the show invites viewers into an intimate world of texture, light, and quiet observation — a soft reminder of seasons that feel all too fleeting in this city.
The exhibition brings together a selection of works painted en plein air during the artist’s first summer in London. Curator Irina Andreeva, known for championing emerging voices, has shaped the presentation around three series — Under the Trees, Through the Windows, and In the Reflections. Together, they trace Iarchuk’s ongoing exploration of the meeting point between the urban and the natural, weaving meticulous observation with a gently imaginative sensibility.
One of the earliest pieces in the show, Under the Trees: Where Roads Begin, depicts a boy on a bicycle beneath a tree near St Mark’s Church. It immediately establishes the tender, slightly wistful tone that threads through the exhibition. Elsewhere, familiar parts of the city become subtly transformed. St Dunstan in the East — the beloved bombed-out church in the financial district — appears twice, rendered as a hidden sanctuary tucked behind steel and glass. In Iarchuk’s hands, London becomes both real and enchanted: a city you know, and a city you feel.
The timing of the show is a quiet gesture of generosity. Opening just as London slips fully into its rainy season, Echoes of Summer offers a momentary refuge — a chance to linger in colour, warmth, and the memory of long light.
One of the most captivating sections is the Summer Flowers series, created with acrylic on A4 paper using monotype techniques. There is something beautifully unpredictable about these works: each impression feels like a small act of discovery, mirroring the way the artist wanders through the city without a fixed destination. Their layered, delicate surfaces echo both the fragility of summer and the meditative practice of truly seeing. And to us it reads as a curious nod towards literature on the psychology of windows and doors – gateways, just like mid-season.
The exhibition space itself is bright and open, amplifying the quiet joy embedded in the works. Iarchuk moves naturally between observation and imagination, finding poetry in everyday details — a shifting shadow, a glimpse through leaves, a fleeting reflection — and turning them into meditations on change, memory, and the passage of time.
Irina Andreeva’s curatorial touch is both subtle and assured. Rather than imposing a tight conceptual frame, she allows Iarchuk’s sensibility to guide the rhythm of the room. The thoughtful hanging underscores the intimacy of the work: each piece is given enough space to breathe, allowing viewers to sink into its quiet textures.
“Anna’s work speaks to the beauty of small things,” Andreeva reflects. “It reminds us that creativity can begin in the most ordinary places — in the way light moves through trees, or the warmth of a summer afternoon.”
Echoes of Summer is on view until 10 December 2025 at Friendly Grounds, 232 Old Brompton Road, London, UK.
