Chantal Joffe

Hung around the gallery like banners, her visceral ten-foot tall portraits of women from the fashion pages are like a degenerate version of social realism.

Although the models are undoubtedly human, with cares and woes, more anodyne characteristics and expressions are imposed by stylists and photographers. Joffe seems to resurrect these women as real people, the paint reanimating faces that were previously mask-like.

The process of painting was very physical, requiring scaffolding and stamina. Unlike easel paintings, they could not easily be stepped back from to survey progress. As a result, the paint seems to have had as much control over the outcome as the artist; often a drip or a brushstroke creates a dynamic that could never have been premeditated.

Chantal Joffe has a distinctive style of painting which offers an uncompromising sense of power, complexity and impetus to the female figures she portrays.

Chantal Joffe uses her works to emphasize the psychological relations of her characters to one another and to the viewer.

The direct and liquid painting style that Chantal Joffe uses has the effect of filling her subjects with personality. The images possess an alarming humour; highly enjoyable and strangely provoking.

The direct and liquid painting style that Chantal Joffe uses has the effect of filling her subjects with personality. The images possess an alarming humour; highly enjoyable and strangely provoking.