'"Painting Writing Texting means a lot to me — to gather together these essays which become a kind of portrait of me, by Olivia, and of our friendship," says Joffe.
'Laing in turn astutely dissects Joffe's art, noting in the essay A Different Door: "What's beautiful to me is the intensity of her regard. It's like she scrapes off some sort of toxic outer layer, a blank plastic. She allows her sitters to possess themselves, to be lovely, idiosyncratic, intelligent, mortal, their eyes wide, wrapped in a daydream or looking boldly back."'
January 6 2026
