Chantal Joffe (b. 1969)

The celebrated British painter Chantal Joffe works loosely from photographs with a warm, acute style that deepens and enhances the emotional essence of her source imagery. She is particularly noted for her achievements in depicting women: diverse in age, background, and activity, her female subjects are portrayed with striking psychological insight and humour. In the present four intimately-scaled works, Joffe reinterprets childhood sporting snapshots with her fluid and expressive brush, transforming the anodyne and everyday into richly animated portraits of exuberant energy. Two young figure skaters and two gymnasts pose with gleeful pride, grinning as they zoom across the ice or show off their stars-and-stripes leotards. While at first glance Joffe’s style may appear naïve, this swiftly gives way to an impression of supreme elegance and confidence with paint. Celebratory and spontaneous, these fearsomely bright images are bursting with joy and personality. ‘When you are painting,’ she says, ‘that is the most alive, the most present tense, you are ever going to be. There’s nothing else.’