Chantal Joffe

On view at Wharf Road are large-scale canvases depicting the artist’s family and friends. The exhibition continues at Mayfair, featuring selections from a year of self-portraits completed during 2018.

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 teenagers. The ways in which we inhabit or enact gender, accentuated during times of accelerated transition such as adolescence, are keenly present in a portrait of Herb, the son of a friend, whom Joffe has painted for a number of years, as well as her own daughter, Esme. In Faun, 2018, and Esme on the Blue Sofa, 2018, Joffe captures them at a poignant threshold, exuding both the vulnerability and coolness of youth. 

Together, the works build upon complex narratives about connection, perception and representation. They alert us to the endless nuance of bodily expression; the myriad ways in which we reveal ourselves and communicate emotion, such as happiness, sadness, confidence, doubt or even distraction, whether we like it or not.