Chantal Joffe  (British, 1969) 

Chantal Joffe (British, b.1969) is known for her large and intriguing oil portraits. She was born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, and attended Camberwell College of Arts from 1987 to 1988. She transferred to the Glasgow School of Art and graduated with honors in 1991 with a BA in Fine Art. Joffe then attended the Royal College of Art in London, where she earned her MA in Painting in 1994. She received the Delfina Studio Trust Award and the Abbey Scholarship.

The majority of Joffe’s paintings feature distorted images of women and children in realistic poses and trendy clothing. She draws inspiration from fashion magazines, photos of friends, and the work of other artists. In a recent interview, she mentioned some work she admires: "I find photography massively influential. Specifically, Diane Arbus, who I've been obsessed with my whole life. Her work has everything about the portrait of a human that you can ever want."

Joffe began her career painting images from adult publications. She felt that the explicit photographs had killed the girls, and that she was bringing them back to life. In a recent interview she explained why her art rarely features men: "I really love painting women. Their bodies, their clothes; it all interests me, whereas men really don't that much, in a way." Walking Woman is a typical example of her work. The portrait features the elongated image of a woman dressed in a bathing suit and strappy sandals but with a hauntingly disturbing face.

Joffe prefers working with oil paint because of its physicality, and she often leaves drips and pencil marks behind in her pieces. Her portraits are occasionally 10 feet tall and require scaffolding to complete. In 2006, Blonde Girl, Black Dress earned Joffe the coveted Charles Wollaston Award in the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The painting, one of 1,305 entries on display, was the unanimous winner of the "most distinguished work in the exhibition" award.

Joffe’s work has been shown at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, the University of the Arts in London, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the Bloomberg Space in London. She was named one of the 30 most important female artists of all time by Latest Art magazine in 2006. The artist recently collaborated with fashion photographer Miles Aldridge to create a dual piece: Joffe painted Aldridge's wife while he photographed the process. Joffe continues to live and work in England.