Chantal Joffe (b. 1969, St. Albans City, VT; lives and works in London) creates figurative paintings that address themes of portraiture, motherhood, the passage of time, and art’s relationship to history. Committed to the genre of figurative art, Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force to her subjects. Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups, Joffe’s paintings loosely adhere to their source―be it a photograph, magazine page, or reflection in the mirror―reminding us that distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more lifelike. Joffe’s paintings alert us to how appearances are carefully constructed and codified, whether in a fashion magazine or the family album, and to the choreography of display. She offers insightful neutrality in her paintings and gives equal billing to catwalk models, porn actresses, mothers and children, loved ones, and literary heroines. Joffe’s choice of subject invites us to question our assumptions about what makes a noble portrait and challenges our expectations of what feminist art might be.
For Joffe, sensuality, self-disclosure, self-consciousness, and intimacy are brought together to heighten already complex narratives about human connection, perception, and representation. These narratives, implicit in the relationship between any artist and subject, are extended to the viewer as propositions and provocations. Whether in paintings a few inches square or ten feet high, Joffe's deceptively casual brushstrokes and ability to combine gesture with a pragmatic approach to representation simultaneously seduces and disarms. Often laying bare the physicality of their making and suffused with a palpable empathetic warmth, Joffe’s paintings offer an insightful examination into ever-shifting human connections and the endless intricacies of looking.
Joffe received her BA from Glasgow School of Art in 1991 and MA from the Royal College of Art, London in 1994. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Arnolfini Museum, Bristol, United Kingdom (2020), IMMA Collection: Freud Project, Dublin, Ireland (2020, forthcoming); The Lowry, Salford, United Kingdom (2018); Jewish Museum, New York, NY (2015); and Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, United Kingdom (2015). Select group exhibitions featuring her work include Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media, The Foundling Museum, London, United Kingdom (2020); Vision X, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland (2019); Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland (2019); Out of Office, Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2019); Exposed: The Naked Portrait, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, United Kingdom (2018); From Life, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom (2017); ISelf Collection: The End of Love, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2017); KVARTETT (QUARTET): Gauthier Hubert, Chantal Joffe, Jockum Nordstrom, Tumi Magnusson, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland (2016); First Light: A Decade of Collecting at the ICA, ICA Boston, Boston, MA (2016); Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough, National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2015); Women’s Weapons; Lipstick & Tears, Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2015); Ritratto di donne: Allesandra Ariatti & Chantal Joffe, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2015); and The Nakeds, The Drawing Room, London, traveled to De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, United Kingdom (2015). Joffe was also awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006.
Joffe’s work is in numerous international public and private collections including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon, Portugal; Museo d’Arte Classica, Moderna e Contemporanea, Italy; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki, Finland; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France; Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; Hall Foundation, VT; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, MA; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, CA; Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, United Kingdom; The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Koo House Museum, Yangpyeong, South Korea; MACI Museo Arte Contemporanea Isernia, Italy; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom; New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI; Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom; The Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom; The Saatchi Collection, London, United Kingdom; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna, Sintra, Portugal; and the Zabludowicz Collection, London, United Kingdom.
Artist portrait by Eva Herzog