Chantal Joffe

19 March - 21 April 2011
Victoria Miro Gallery I

Information

16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW

The exhibition centred around a powerful group of seven large-scale paintings where the artist  restricted her palette to dark tones of black, red, blue and white. The works offer complex fictional portrayals of the artist's heroines painted chronologically and moving towards us in time from the 1840's.  As well as conceptual explorations of representations of female icons, the works also engage with key moments in literature, painting and feminist history.

Both specific and non-specific, these are imagined depictions of women -  some are real individuals and others hybrid figures - born out of Joffe's consideration of works of art and literature and the social climate in which they were created. Manet's The Drummer Boy, the writings of Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson, the paintings of Lee Krasner and Tamara de Lempicka are all referenced here along with the intimate musings of Edmund White and the passionate polemics of Susan Sontag. Each painting shows these young women at a point early in their lives, when they are beginning to find a voice and question what it means to pursue a dream of being an artist. Set against dark backgrounds and located somewhere not of this time, the strongly contoured bodies are depicted in awkward or sexual poses, distorted or kneeling but equally conveying a sense of vulnerability. The models - as is often the case in Joffe's work - are taken from photographs in contemporary fashion magazines and bear little or no resemblance to their imagined counterparts.

The series begins with a portrayal of a young androgynous girl which formally pays homage to Manet's strong black outlining of figures, drawing attention both to the surface of the picture plane and the paint.  Next, Emilys Brontë and Dickinson merge into the single likeness of a young 19th- century author, whilst positioned later, in the 20th- century, a depiction of Lee Krasner suggests an alternative to the machismo world of abstract expressionism and the works of Krasner's husband Jackson Pollock and other mid-century male figures whose language so dominated the art world that many women artists were overlooked for decades: Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel and Krasner to name but a few. Further into Joffe's series lies the influence of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction of Frank Stella, whose stripes become the backdrop for a young female beatnik. The exception to the series is the last painting, a portrayal of intellectual and activist Susan Sontag as a young woman alongside a heavily blacked-out male figure, again symbolic of the contributions to contemporary culture made by a woman in a predominantly male-orientated world.

Characterised by Joffe's fluid style and deliberate distortion of scale and form that exudes psychological and emotional force; the restricted palette adopted in this series of works results in a presentation that is both looser and freer. Left deliberately untitled, these works are not portraits of single personalities but rather paintings, loaded with symbolism, acknowledging the rich history of the creativity of women who have profoundly impacted literature, artistic practice, and cultural thought.

Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art. She was awarded the Royal Academy Woollaston Prize in 2006. Joffe has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York (2009); University of the Arts, London (2007), MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2007), Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005), Galleri KB, Oslo (2005) and Bloomberg Space, London (2004).

Gallery Exhibitions: Current and Upcoming

Previous
Next

Victoria Miro

16 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
t: +44 (0)20 7336 8109

info@victoria-miro.com

View map

Victoria Miro Venice

San Marco 1994,

Calle Drio La Chiesa

30124 Venice, Italy

t: +39 041 523 3799 

info@victoria-miro.com
View map

Opening Times

During exhibitions:

London: 
Tuesday–Saturday: 10am–6pm. 

 

Venice: Tuesday–Saturday: 10am–1pm & 2–6pm. 

 

We are also closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays. 

 

Admission free. 



 

Enquiries

All general enquiries should be sent to
info@victoria-miro.com

 

All press enquiries should be sent to
press@victoria-miro.com
 
All rights and reproduction enquiries should be sent to
rights@victoria-miro.com


Victoria Miro does not accept unsolicited artist applications.

 

Before contacting or subscribing please read our Privacy Policy

 

We respect the choices you make about how you would like to hear from us. You will find links at the bottom of all emails we send from our mailing list which allow you to Update your preferences to change the way we contact you, or Unsubscribe if you want to opt out.

 

Read our Modern Slavery Statement here.

 

Read our sustainability statement here.

Subscribe

Staff contact details

Directors

Victoria Miro
W.P. Miro
Glenn Scott Wright
Gussie Huddart
Executive Assistant to Directors
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7549 0491

Sales

Divya Pande
Head of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0903
Oliver Miro
Director of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7549 0496
Paula Sankoff
Senior Director, Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7549 0494
Clare Coombes
Director of Sales - Museum Acquisitions
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0919
Simon Kirby
Director of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7549 0498
Alessandra Modiano
Director of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 3962 4346
Will Davies
Director of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 3962 4355
Fern Warriner
Associate Director of Sales
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0905
Pia Sophie Biasi
Director – Venice
Direct line: +39 041 523 3799
Alexandra Leverett
Senior Sales Administrator
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 3962 4344
Victor Schagerlund
Sales Administrator
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 3962 4356
Libby Tyler
Sales Administrator
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0912

Exhibitions

Erin Manns
Director of Exhibitions - Head of Department
Direct line: +44 (0) 7780 463 580
Jessica Green
Director of Exhibitions
Direct line: +44 (0) 7957 195 504
Rachel Kent
Director of Exhibitions
Direct line: +44 (0) 7852 751 045
Mary Taylor
Production Director
Direct line: +44 (0) 7950 267 092
Simona Pizzi
Artist Projects Director
Direct line: +44 (0) 7848 006 894
Imogen Sampson
Exhibitions Associate
Direct line: +44 (0) 7572 724 115
Virginia Sirena
Exhibitions Associate
Direct line: +44 (0) 7950 267 246

Communications

Kathy Stephenson
Director of Communications
Direct line: +44 (0) 7803 611 186
Martin Coomer
Head of Editorial and Digital Content
Direct line: +44 (0) 7930 490 411
Marisa J. Futernick
Digital and Social Media Consultant
Direct line: +1 (860) 549 2576
Content and Communications Manager
Direct line: +44 (0)7375 789 535
Bea Bradley
Photography, Rights & Reproduction Manager
Direct line: +44 (0) 7957 787 866
Aimee Blow
Design and Communications Coordinator
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109

Operations

Robert Holzberger
Director of Operations
Direct line: +44 (0) 7986 580 363
Photini Pavlidis
Senior Facilities and IT Manager
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0914
Olivia Singh
Operations Manager
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7549 0493
Vicky Polakovic
Front of House and Events Coordinator
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0913
Mary Eleanor McNicholas
Art Fair Coordinator
Direct line: +44 (0) 7896 548 233
Clare Rowe
Paper Archive and Records Manager
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Philip Ewe
Library Coordinator and Archive Assistant
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Adeline Guy
Registrar Director - Head of Department
Direct line: +44 (0) 7490 237 709
Jayne Archard
Senior Registrar
Direct line: +44 (0) 7496 865 055
Alice Panton
Senior Registrar
Direct line: +44 (0) 7852 751 046
Emer Bermingham
Senior Registrar
Direct line: +44 (0) 7984 073 772
Fiona Holdsworth
Assistant Registrar
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Amelia Power
Assistant Registrar
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7324 0901

Technical Services

David Wood
Technical Director, Head of Department
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Jon Glazier
Head Technician
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Martin Fletcher
Senior Technician
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Jonny Winter
Senior Technician
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Rob Phillips
Senior Technician
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109
Ross Taylor
Technician
Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109

Finance

Direct line: +44 (0) 20 7336 8109