Chantal Joffe @ Victoria Miro

Victoria Miro is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Chantal Joffe. Joffe primarily paints expressive portraits of women and children, often in very large scale, sometimes 10 feet (3 m) tall. In a 2009 interview with Stella McCartney, Joffe said, "I really love painting women. Their bodies, their clothes - it all interests me." Source images for her personality-filled oil paintings include family photos, advertising, fashion magazines, and pornography. Working roughly from her photographic source material, Joffe introduces distortions to her depictions. In the McCartney interview, Joffe mentioned the photography of Diane Arbus as an inspiration for her art: "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." A reviewer said of her "big rude paintings" that "she paints with a kind of easy control - effortless without being slick."He further points out that her paintings may give an initial impression of simplicity, charm, or childishness, but "they have an unsettling quality which gives the exhibition an odd, rather menacing mood. LINK victoria miro