Joffe has often talked about her paintings in terms of transitions, those associated with growing and ageing, as well as her attempt to mark a life’s milestones. These concerns are especially pronounced in her images of children and teenagers, such as Bella, 2017, and Blonde Girl in a Blue Dress, 2020. The ways in which we inhabit or enact gender, accentuated during times of accelerated transition such as adolescence, are keenly present in such works.

About the artist

Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. The acclaimed British painter has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Louisiana, Humlebaek, Denmark; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Jewish Museum, New York; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Neuberger Museum of Art, New York. The Artist’s Mother, on view at IMMA in Dublin, Ireland, from March – August 2021, presented works by Lucian Freud of his mother alongside works by Joffe of her own mother. Her recent solo exhibition titled Chantal Joffe: For Esme – With Love and Squalor at Arnolfini, Bristol. UK (2020) captured the changing faces of Joffe and her daughter Esme, moving between mother and daughter and the act of care and being cared for. Her work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts; National Portrait Gallery, London; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Joffe has created a major new public work for the Elizabeth line station at Whitechapel, London, which will be on view when the Crossrail station opens in 2022.