Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Defined by its clarity, honesty and empathy, her work is attuned to our awareness as both observers and observed beings, and is questioning, complex and emotionally rich.
Joffe's paintings always alert us to how appearances are carefully constructed and codified, whether in a fashion magazine or the family album, and to the choreography of display. For the artist, notions of sensuality and self-disclosure are parcelled up in works of mobile immediacy. Tensions between the scale of the work and the apparent intimacy of the scene depicted heighten already complex narratives about connection, perception and representation that, implicit in the relationship between artist and subject, are extended to the viewer as a series of propositions and provocations. Suffused with a palpable empathetic warmth, Joffe’s paintings are deeply questioning images about ever-shifting human connections and the endless intricacies of looking.
Together, the works build upon 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, consciously or not.
About the artist
Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. Joffe has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (2023-2024); The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (2022); Koohouse Museum, Yangpyong, Korea (2022); The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); The Foundling Museum, London, UK (2020); Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2020); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2018); The Lowry, Salford, UK (2018); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2018, 2017); National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík (2016); National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2015); Jewish Museum, New York, USA (2015); Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, UK (2015); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014–2015); Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2013–2014); MODEM, Hungary (2012); Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2011); Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, USA (2009); MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK (2007); Galleri KB, Oslo, Norway (2005) and Bloomberg Space, London, UK (2004).
Her work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.
Chantal Joffe & Anna Bjerger two-person exhibition, The Time Before, is currently on view at Gammel Strand in Copenhagen until 8 September 2024.
Joffe has created a major public work for the Elizabeth line in London titled A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel, on view at Whitechapel Elizabeth line station.
Survey: Selected Works
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Night Self-Portrait, February, 2018
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Big Head, 2019
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Self-Portrait I, October, 2018
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Moll in a Mustard Jacket, 2014
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Self-Portrait in a Red Jumper, 2015
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Self Portrait with Hand on Hip, 2014
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Brunette in a Car, 2013
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Moll Reclining, 2014
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Vita in the Borgese, 2013
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Big blonde in red dress, 2012
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Dan Eating a Banana, 2012
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Red Head on Ochre, 2012
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Self-Portrait with Esme and Spot, 2011
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Megan, 2010
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Man with a Drink, 2008
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Red Boat, 2008
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Anne Sexton with Joy, 2008
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Blonde Girl Sitting on a Picnic Table, 2007
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Woman in a Grecian Dress, 2007
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Black Sleeveless Dress, 2005
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Blond Girl - Black Dress, 2005
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Mother and Child II, 2005
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Untitled, 2005
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Big Head, 2003
Related
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Exhibition Posted June 22 2024
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, featuring Chantal Joffe, Wangechi Mutu, Celia Paul and Paula Rego, travels to Midlands Art Centre
Hayward Gallery Touring’s major group exhibition explores lived experience of motherhood through over 100 artworks. -
Exhibition Posted June 18 2024
Anna Bjerger and Chantal Joffe: The Time Before at Gammel Strand, Copenhagen
On view 21 June–8 September 2024, the exhibition explores painterly kinship and shared themes of friendship, loss and time passing in the artist’s work. Gammel Strand, Copenhagen -
Exhibition Posted May 3 2024
Chantal Joffe and Do Ho Suh create work for Drawing Room’s Drawing Biennial 2024
The exhibition and auction showcases around 300 drawings by artists who have generously donated works in support of Drawing Room’s mission. Drawing Room/Tannery Arts, London -
Edition Posted March 20 2024
Chantal Joffe creates a new edition in support of Studio Voltaire
This lithograph has been made exclusively for House of Voltaire on the occasion of Studio Voltaire's 30th anniversary, to raise funds for the organisation's artistic and public programmes. -
Exhibition Posted March 9 2024
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, featuring Chantal Joffe, Wangechi Mutu, Celia Paul and Paula Rego, on view at Arnolfini, Bristol
★★★★★ ‘Acts of Creation is riveting from first to last, an exceptional (and touring) anthology of contemporary artworks to startle, move and awe, all one hundred and more plunging deep into motherhood.’ – Laura Cumming, The Observer Arnolfini, Bristol -
Edition Posted March 5 2024
Chantal Joffe creates a new, limited-edition print in support of Hospital Rooms
Chantal Joffe has created this limited-edition etching to support the work of Hospital Rooms, a charity that transforms inpatient mental health units with contemporary art. -
Review Posted October 9 2023
Chloë Ashby reviews Real Families: Stories of Change for The Guardian
‘Among the best is Chantal Joffe, who remembers realising while she was studying at the Royal College of Art in the early 1990s not only that she could paint her parents, but that it was a good way of contemplating her relationship with them. Ever since, she has committed herself and the rest of her family to canvas again and again.’ Chloë Ashby, The Guardian -
Exhibition Posted October 5 2023
On view in Cambridge: Real Families: Stories of Change, featuring Chantal Joffe, Alice Neel, Celia Paul, Grayson Perry and Paula Rego
Bringing together more than 120 artworks spanning painting, photography, sculpture and film, the exhibition (6 October 2023–7 January 2024) asks us to consider what makes a family today, and the impact our families have on us, through the eyes of contemporary artists. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge -
Interview Posted September 7 2023
‘These paintings are not like any other paintings I’ve made’ – Chantal Joffe talks to AnOther
As an exhibition of new paintings opens in Venice, Chantal Joffe talks to Thea Hawlin about her experience of living and painting in the Italian city. AnOther Thea Hawlin -
Gallery Exhibition 5 September - 21 October 2023
Chantal Joffe: The Eel
An exhibition of new paintings completed this summer during a residency with the gallery in Venice. The exhibition is accompanied by a new essay by Olivia Laing. Victoria Miro Venice -
Exhibition Posted June 13 2023
The RA Summer Exhibition opens at the Royal Academy of Arts
On view are works by Victoria Miro artists Ali Banisadr, Chantal Joffe, Paula Rego, and Conrad Shawcross. Royal Academy of Arts -
Exhibition Posted March 17 2023
Chantal Joffe features in Finding Family at the Foundling Museum
This exhibition (17 March–27 August 2023) looks at the ways in which artists have represented and responded to ideas of family, past and present. Foundling Museum, London -
Exhibition Posted January 10 2023
Chantal Joffe, Idris Khan and Conrad Shawcross create works for Cure Parkinson’s exhibition
Works by Chantal Joffe, Idris Khan and Conrad Shawcross are included in an exhibition to raise funds for the charity Cure Parkinson’s. Curated by Artwise and presented in partnership with Bonhams. -
Exhibition Posted August 24 2022
Chantal Joffe: Family Lexicon at Koo House, South Korea
The exhibition (24 August– 4 December 2022) features a selection of works that depict the artist alongside significant figures in her life. Koo House, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea -
Commission Posted May 25 2022
Chantal Joffe: A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel goes on view at Whitechapel station on the newly launched central section of the Elizabeth line
The artwork reflects the local east London community enjoying a typical Sunday afternoon. The works were initially made as small-scale paper collages that were subsequently rendered in laser-cut aluminium. Whitechapel station -
Gallery Exhibition 12 February - 27 March 2022
Unmasked
An exhibition in Venice of works by Milton Avery, Jules de Balincourt, Hernan Bas, María Berrío, Chantal Joffe, Doron Langberg, Alice Neel and Celia Paul. Victoria Miro Venice -
Exhibition Posted October 7 2021
Group exhibition MOTHER! now open at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
Travelling from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, this group exhibition includes work by Chantal Joffe and Alice Neel. On view until 6 February 2022. Kunsthalle Mannheim -
Exhibition Posted September 22 2021
The RA Summer Exhibition 2021 featuring work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Chantal Joffe, Isaac Julien, Grayson Perry, Howardena Pindell and Conrad Shawcross
Opening on 22 September 2021–2 January 2022, this year's exhibition includes work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Chantal Joffe, Isaac Julien, Grayson Perry, Howardena Pindell and Conrad Shawcross. Royal Academy of Arts -
Review Posted August 24 2021
Chantal Joffe: Story reviewed by Artforum
‘Motherhood and childhood are both deeply universal and not, both innate and entirely constructed in their rituals, traditions, assumptions, associations. The stories we tell, the images we make of them, matter.’ Emily LaBarge, Artforum -
Review Posted June 22 2021
Chantal Joffe: Story reviewed by Studio International
Beth Williamson reviews Chantal Joffe: Story for Studio International. Beth Williamson, Studio International -
Review Posted June 9 2021
The Financial Times reviews Chantal Joffe: Story
’Joffe's mother peers out from her hallway… it is a painting about seeing, painting – focusing, framing an image – and the extent to which we allow a slice of ourselves to be known.’ Jackie Wullschläger, The Financial Times -
Interview Posted June 8 2021
Apollo: In the studio with… Chantal Joffe
‘I love everything about it – but most of all that it looks on to the canal.’ Apollo -
Gallery Exhibition 4 June - 31 July 2021
Chantal Joffe: Story
Victoria Miro is delighted to present new works by Chantal Joffe. Story features a number of paintings of the artist’s mother and considers issues of aging, motherhood and invisibility, focusing particularly on the complex relationship between mother and child over time. Victoria Miro Gallery II -
Channel June 4 2021
Chantal Joffe: Story
Accompanied by an artist’s book with a new text by Olivia Laing, Chantal Joffe’s exhibition Story features a number of paintings of the artist’s mother and considers issues of aging, motherhood and visibility, focusing particularly on the complex relationship between mother and child over time. The exhibition is the third in a trilogy that began with a year of self-portraits, shown at Victoria Miro in 2019, followed by For Esme – with Love and Squalor, which captured the changing faces across the years of Joffe and her daughter, Esme, on view at Arnolfini, Bristol, in 2020. -
Publications June 4 2021
Chantal Joffe: Story
Chantal Joffe: StoryNot currently available20.000 in cart -
Exhibition Posted March 3 2021
Now live: The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll, featuring Lucian Freud and Chantal Joffe
IMMA, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, presents a virtual exhibition (3 March–8 August 2021) available to view on Vortic and at imma.ie, followed by a gallery display of the pastels, which will be available to visit in the Freud Centre when current Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. -
Gallery Exhibition 24 February - 30 April 2021
The Sky was Blue the Sea was Blue and the Boy was Blue
An exhibition of work by 19 artists celebrating the colour blue, available online and on Vortic as part of The London Collective. Victoria Miro on Vortic -
Gallery Exhibition 17 November - 18 December 2020
Chantal Joffe: Naked
A series of large-scale pastel self-portraits by Chantal Joffe, viewable online and on Vortic Collect. Victoria Miro on Vortic -
Interview Posted October 21 2020
Painting the personal: Chantal Joffe talks to Art UK
'Sometimes I paint people – I see them as beautiful; in the moment I paint people they look beautiful, but the painting doesn't always come out like that. I'm not always in control – they're never quite what I hope. It's a strange, exposing experience for both parties.' Ruth Millington, Artuk.org -
News story Posted September 25 2020
Country & Town House interview Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe speaks with Sarah Hyde about her new show, For Esme – with Love and Squalor, on view at Arnolfini, Bristol. Sarah Hyde, Country & Town House -
News story Posted September 19 2020
‘Electric, Like Time Travel’: The New York Review of Books interviews Chantal Joffe
Chantal Joffe speaks with The New York Review of Books. Imogen Greenhalgh, The New York Review of Books -
Exhibition Posted August 25 2020
Chantal Joffe: For Esme – with Love and Squalor, now open at Arnolfini, Bristol
The exhibition (3 September–22 November 2020) explores the intimate act of painting and portraiture. Taking its name from J.D. Salinger’s short story For Esmé – with Love and Squalor (1950) in which time hangs as heavy as the protagonist’s ‘enormous-faced chronographic-looking wristwatch’, the exhibition captures the changing faces across the years of Chantal and her daughter Esme, moving between mother and daughter, love and squalor, and the act of care and being cared for. Arnolfini, Bristol -
Interview Posted August 19 2020
Chantal Joffe talks to Ben Luke for The Art Newspaper’s A brush with… podcast
In the latest in this new series of podcasts from The Art Newspaper, Ben Luke talks to Chantal Joffe about the cultural experiences that have had an impact on her... The Art Newspaper -
Exhibition Posted July 8 2020
Now reopen at the Foundling Museum – Portraying Pregnancy, featuring Chantal Joffe
This major exhibition (now extended until 23 August 2020) explores representations of pregnancy through portraits from the past 500 years. Foundling Museum, London -
News Posted June 2 2020
Chantal Joffe creates a special cover for the RA Magazine
For Summer 2020 issue of the magazine, produced as the RA closed its doors in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the editorial team invited writers and artists to respond to the relationship between art and the domestic world. A special cover was created by Chantal Joffe, depicting her sister and niece in their doorway. RA Magazine -
Picture story Posted February 19 2020
The New York Times T Magazine commissions Chantal Joffe
Work by the artist was commissioned to accompany Megan O'Grady's essay on why tales of female trios are newly relevant. Joffe's painting Me, Em and Nat depicts herself and her sisters as children in the 1970s. Megan O'Grady, The New York Times -
News story Posted August 7 2019
Chantal Joffe, Idris Khan, Grayson Perry and Conrad Shawcross donate works to Willow Foundation’s The Extraordinary Collection
Works are available to view at a public exhibition at Coutts, The Strand (23–27 September 2019) and will be sold on behalf of Willow, a national charity working with seriously ill 16–40 year olds, at a private auction at Coutts on 25 September 2019. -
Exhibition Posted June 29 2019
Chantal Joffe is included in Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The exhibition (29 June–27 October 2019) is the first survey exhibition of collage ever to take place in Britain. It spans a period of more than 400 years and includes more than 250 works. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh -
Exhibition Posted May 21 2019
Chantal Joffe is featured in Downtown Painting: Presented by Alex Katz
A summer group exhibition (5 June–20 July 2019) echoing the spirit of the downtown art scene in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. Peter Freeman Inc, New York -
Channel May 16 2019
Chantal Joffe: Self-Portraits
On New Year’s Day, 2018, the artist set herself the challenge of working on a self-portrait every day for the coming year. This daily practice – through personal lows and highs, in the shifting white light of a prolonged London winter and the savage heat of New York in summer – has resulted in a series of characteristically unflinching works. -
Review Posted April 28 2019
Waldemar Januszczak reviews Chantal Joffe in The Sunday Times
'… there is something almost Manet-like in her ability to capture subtle and nuanced effects with brushstrokes 2in wide' Waldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times -
Review Posted April 27 2019
Sue Hubbard reviews Chantal Joffe in Artlyst
'She charts the process of living and ageing, tracing the difficulties, disappointments and small victories it throws up like a series of maps on the landscape of the faces she paints.' Sue Hubbard, Artlyst -
Gallery Exhibition 11 April - 18 May 2019
Chantal Joffe
On view at Wharf Road are large-scale canvases depicting the artist’s family and friends, by the acclaimed British painter Chantal Joffe. Exhibition continues at Mayfair, featuring selections from a year... Victoria Miro Gallery II -
Gallery Exhibition 11 April - 18 May 2019
Chantal Joffe
On view at Victoria Miro Mayfair are selected self-portraits from a series begun in January 2018, by the acclaimed British painter Chantal Joffe. Exhibition continues at Wharf Road, featuring large-scale... Victoria Miro Mayfair -
Preview Posted April 11 2019
Olivia Laing writes about Chantal Joffe in the Paris Review
'Unless you’re Benjamin Button, you’re getting older by the second. But emotional states are more like weather systems, moving in and out…' Olivia Laing, The Paris Review -
Interview Posted April 6 2019
Chantal Joffe talks to Rowan Pelling in The Telegraph
‘You spend 30 years working out life – then everything falls away’ Rowan Pelling, The Telegraph -
Publications March 28 2019
Chantal Joffe: The Front of My Face
Chantal Joffe: The Front of My FaceNot currently available20.000 in cart -
Exhibition Posted March 16 2019
Now open: Childhood Now, featuring Chantal Joffe, at Compton Verney
The exhibition (16 March–16 June 2019) features the work of three contemporary painters and partners Compton Verney's survey show Painting Childhood: From Holbein to Freud, which spans some 500 years of paintings, drawings and sculptures of children. Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park, Warwickshire -
Exhibition Posted March 3 2019
Collezione Maramotti opens its rehung galleries, featuring displays by Jules de Balincourt and Chantal Joffe
For the first time since the opening of Collezione Maramotti in October 2007, ten rooms on the second floor of the permanent display have been rehung to present some of the projects shown during the first ten years of activity: including Jules de Balincourt (2012) and Chantal Joffe (2014). Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia -
Commission Posted January 10 2019
Conrad Shawcross, Chantal Joffe and Yayoi Kusama create window installations for Selfridges in celebration of their forthcoming Crossrail commissions
As a foretaste of their Crossrail commissions for the new Elizabeth Line, participating artists have been invited to create windows for Selfridges in Oxford Street, on view until 29 March 2019. Selfridges, London -
Exhibition Posted October 25 2018
Chantal Joffe in Exposed: The Naked Portrait at Laing Art Gallery
This exhibition (27 October 2018–3 March 2019) of works from the National Portrait Gallery collection invites questions about identity and gender, the real and ideal. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne -
Exhibition Posted October 20 2018
Chantal Joffe, Wangechi Mutu and Celia Paul feature in Contemporary Dialogues with Tintoretto at the Ca’ d’Oro, Venice
The exhibition (20 October 2018–7 January 2019) focuses on dialogues between Tintoretto’s masterpieces preserved at Palazzo Ducale and Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro, with the artworks by leading contemporary artists. Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro, Venice -
News Posted September 10 2018
Chantal Joffe is announced as a judge of the Evening Standard Art Prize
Ben Luke visits the artist in her studio to discuss starting out as an artist, painting people and joining the judging panel of the Evening Standard Art Prize. -
Exhibition Posted June 12 2018
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018, coordinated by Grayson Perry
The exhibition (12 June–19 August 2018) also features work by Chantal Joffe, Isaac Julien, Idris Khan, Tal R and Conrad Shawcross. Royal Academy of Arts, London -
Preview Posted June 3 2018
Louise Benson writes about Chantal Joffe’s Herb at Sixteen as part of Elephant’s Contemporary Classics series
'Here is the compassionate honesty that characterizes Joffe’s mark-making, full with the psychological undercurrents to be found when looking…' Elephant Louisa Benson -
Review Posted May 29 2018
Rachel Spence reviews Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is The Main Thing in the Financial Times
'This is motherhood uncut. Tough, inelegant, utterly devoted, yet also transient in its evolution towards a shift in power.' Rachel Spence, The Financial Times -
Interview Posted May 23 2018
Sue Hubbard writes about Chantal Joffe in The London Magazine
'She not so much produces portraits, in the sense of a photographic likeness, but investigations – a sense of what it is like to inhabit the subject’s skin.' The London Magazine Sue Hubbard -
Exhibition Posted May 19 2018
Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling is the Main Thing at The Lowry
An exhibition (19 May–2 September 2018) of works from across Joffe's career addressing themes of portraiture, motherhood, passing time and art's relationship to history. The Lowry, Salford -
Interview Posted May 18 2018
Chantal Joffe talks to Hettie Judah in the i
‘Painting people is imagining your way into somebody else’ Hettie Judah, The i -
Publications May 18 2018
Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is the Main Thing
Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is the Main ThingNot currently available35.000 in cart
Previous exhibitions at Victoria Miro
Chantal Joffe: The Eel
An exhibition of new paintings completed this summer during a residency with the gallery in Venice. The exhibition is accompanied by a new essay by Olivia Laing.Unmasked
An exhibition in Venice of works by Milton Avery, Jules de Balincourt, Hernan Bas, María Berrío, Chantal Joffe, Doron Langberg, Alice Neel and Celia Paul.
Chantal Joffe: Story
Victoria Miro is delighted to present new works by Chantal Joffe. Story features a number of paintings of the artist’s mother and considers issues of aging, motherhood and invisibility, focusing particularly on the complex relationship between mother and child over time.
The Sky was Blue the Sea was Blue and the Boy was Blue
An exhibition of work by 19 artists celebrating the colour blue, available online and on Vortic as part of The London Collective.
Chantal Joffe: Naked
A series of large-scale pastel self-portraits by Chantal Joffe, viewable online and on Vortic Collect.