GINNY ON FREDERICK is a tiny art gallery at 99 Charterhouse Street, next to Smithfield meat market. We had never heard of it before, and after seeing it mentioned in the Financial Times newspaper, we went there today (11 March 2026) to view a collection of portrait paintings by British-born Hanna Murray (b. 1994). She received her MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2021, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York (USA). Like the gallery, the artist was new to us.

The six paintings on display were all portraits, beautifully executed. What makes each of them special is the artist’s depictions of her subjects’ eyes. They are literally eye-catching, and especially alluring. Along with her choice of colouring, the eves give the portraits an almost dreamlike quality, slightly weird but in a positive way. The gallery’s excellently written handout mentions the eyes, suggesting (quite correctly) that the subjects depicted:

“ … appear to observe themselves being observed.”

Difficult to find because it is so small and without a noticeable sign outside it, Ginny on Frederick was well worth the visit, and seeing the works by Hannah Murray was a delightful experience.