Victoria Miro is delighted to present The Eel, an exhibition of new paintings by Chantal Joffecompleted this summer during a residency with the gallery in Venice.
Defined by its clarity, honesty and empathy, Chantal Joffe's art is attuned to our awareness as both observers andobserved beings, and is questioning, complex and emotionally rich. Over the summer, the artist has worked in thegallery's studio in Venice, completing paintings–self-portraits; paintings of her daughter, Esme; still lifes–againstthe backdrop of the city at its high-season peak, a place of magnificence, stimulation, pleasure, excess and decay,endlessly toppling into one another.
The exhibition is accompanied by The Spoils, a new essay by Olivia Laing, who writes, 'How can you paint all this?Put your body in the middle of it and hope to catch a flash as something vanishes or changes state. The only way towalk in the crowd is to submit to its sleepwalker pace, and maybe these pictures are a little like that. Lido, vaporetto,tramezzini on a plate. Everything is gorgeous, everything contains its secret evidence of death.'
About the artist
Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and wasawarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. Joffe has exhibited nationally and internationally at venuesincluding The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (2022); Koohouse Museum, Yangpyong, Korea (2022); The IrishMuseum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); The Foundling Museum, London, UK (2020); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK(2020); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2019); Whitechapel Gallery , London, UK (2018);The Lowry, Salford, UK (2018); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2018, 2017); National Museum of Iceland,Reykjavík (2016); National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2015); Jewish Museum, New York, USA (2015); JerwoodGallery, Hastings, UK (2015); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014–2015); Saatchi Gallery, London,UK (2013–2014); MODEM, Hungary (2012); Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2011); Neuberger Museum ofArt, Purchase, New York, USA (2009); MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK (2007); Galleri KB,Oslo, Norway (2005) and Bloomberg Space, London, UK (2004).
Her work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston,USA; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; and The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York, USA.
The artist's work is currently on view at the Foundling Museum in London as part of the group exhibition FindingFamily (17 March–27 August 2023) and, in October 2023, will feature in the group exhibition Real Families: Stories ofChange at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (6 October 2023–7 January 2024).
Joffe has created a major public work for the Elizabeth line in London titled A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel, on viewat Whitechapel Elizabeth line station.
Chantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Hers is a deceptively casual brushstroke. Whether in images a few inches square or ten feet high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits, Joffe’s paintings only waveringly adhere to their source – be it a photograph, magazine page or even a reflection in the mirror – instead reminding us that distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more real.
Since Victoria Miro founded her eponymous gallery in Cork Street, Mayfair, in 1985, the gallery has grown to represent over 40 artists and estates. With a reputation for presenting ground-breaking artworks from around the world, Victoria Miro has exhibition spaces in Mayfair and Wharf Road in London, and a further gallery space in Venice.
