Chantal Joffe: The Hard Winter

Chantal Joffe’s oil paintings, on exhibition at Galerie Forsblom, raise vital questions concerning what makes a work’s subject matter relevant, while examining the expectations and challenges facing today's feminist art. Joffe’s soulful images of women drill deep into the psyche, creating an emotionally and psychologically charged atmosphere.

The exhibition presents both oil paintings and paper collages, which include self-portraits as well as portraits of the artist's daughter, friends, and even anonymous women found in the pages of fashion magazines. Joffe fills the portraits with such nuanced characteristics that individuated spiritual presences can be sensed within the paintings. Via distorted perspectives generated by cut paper and brush strokes, the artist manages to illustrate her models as real people, of body and soul.

The humorous, subtly provocative style in which Joffe presents her motifs—combined with the oil paintings’ dripping paint from blithe strokes—raise conflicting emotions. While displaying confidence in the emotional effect colour elicits, Joffe’s paintings represent more than feelings awakened through colour. The concept of time, and the inevitable changes it entails, is also present in her works.

Chantal Joffe (b. 1969) is renowned for her large oil paintings, which often involve women and children in understated situations. Joffe’s expressive works have attracted international renown, and the artist has had numerous solo exhibitions in her home country, the UK, as well as in continental Europe and the US. Joffe, who graduated from the Royal College of Art, has won numerous art prizes and garnered much acclaim. In 2006, the magazine Latest Art selected her as the most important female artist of all time. Chantal Joffe lives and works in London.