Chantal Joffe: The Eel

‘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.’ — Olivia Laing

‘Everything is very beautiful, a cannoli with a cherry on top.’

‘Too late at the beach and there’s a warning of a storm. The umbrella guy’s packing up and the sky’s so overcast the sand has gone green. Soft bodies like bread rolls in their beach clothes, baring white flesh.’

‘Esme dreaming on the vaporetto, chin up, rosy sunburned arms encircling a clear expanse of blue.’

‘Paper bowl of cherries, navy-striped swimsuit, black umbrella in the rain. The hard facts mount up.’

‘Two self-portraits on a couch, the same not quite nude seen from in front and behind. White bra, enormous knickers, huddled like a figure from Pompeii, averting the future and then the wind changed.’

‘These pictures are sloshing with time. Longueurs and languor, time running out or stuck on the dial. Days sweet as cream, a ferry to catch.’

Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. Joffe has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Foundling Museum, London, UK (2023, 2020); The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (2022); Koohouse Museum, Yangpyong, Korea (2022); The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); 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); Jerwood Gallery, 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 of Art, 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 of Art, New York, USA.

In October 2023, work by the artist will feature in the group exhibition Real Families: Stories of Change 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 view at Whitechapel Elizabeth line station.