Chantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Hers is a deceptively casual brushstroke. Whether in images a few inches square or ten feet high, fluidity combined with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Almost always depicting women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits, Joffe’s paintings only waveringly adhere to their source – be it a photograph, magazine page or even a reflection in the mirror – instead reminding us that distortions of scale and form can often make a subject seem more real. More details here

Katy Hessel is a 27-year-old curator, broadcaster, and art historian based in London, UK, and runs @thegreatwomenartists, an Instagram account that has celebrated women artists on a daily basis since 2015. In 2020, Hessel made her TV debut writing and presenting Artemisia Gentileschi for BBC Four, and in 2021 was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Art & Culture.

Hessel writes, hosts and produces a weekly podcast, The Great Women Artists Podcast, which was listed as British Vogue’s Best Podcasts of 2021, interviews include the Turner Prize-winner Lubaina Himid, and acclaimed writer, Olivia Laing. She is also host of Dior’s podcast, Dior Talks – Feminist Art, where I have interviewed Tracey Emin and Judy Chicago Hessel writes extensively on the subject, including a recent interview with Zadie Smith and Toyin Ojih Odutola, and have lectured for Intelligence Squared, The National Gallery, Courtauld, Tate, Cambridge University, Pallant House Gallery, and more; presented films for BBC, Dior, Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Hauser & Wirth, National Portrait Gallery, Barbican, and more; appeared on BBC Radio 3 & 4; and have been featured by The Sunday Times, ES Magazine, i-D, among others. Hessel has curated exhibitions at Timothy Taylor Gallery, Victoria Miro Gallery, TJ Boulting, Mother London, an area of Tate Modern for a Tate Late, and two annual residencies at Palazzo Monti for emerging artists. More details here

Christina Kennedy is Senior Curator: Head of Collections at IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art since 2008. Prior to that she was Head of Exhibitions at Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane (DCGHL) for 10 years. She is lead curator of IMMA Collection: Freud Project, 2016-2021 with its programme of exhibitions and displays including: Chantal Joffe, The Artist’s Mother: Lucie and Daryll in the context of the IMMA Collection: Freud Project, 2021; Life Above Everything: Lucian Freud and Jack B. Yeats co-curated with David Dawson, 2019-2020; with Catherine Lampert she has co-curated for IMMA Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance 2020 (organised by MK Gallery UK and SNGMA She is currently working on the Collections programmes for IMMA’s 30th Birthday, 2021-2022.

She has curated and co-curated many exhibitions, edited publications and contributed texts to numerous catalogues including IMMA Collection: Freud Project, 2016; Life Above Everything: Lucian Freud and Jack B. Yeats, 2019; Patrick Scott: Image, Space, Light, IMMA 2014; Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art & Francis Bacon’s Studio, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, co-curator, 2013; ; Art as Argument : Brian O’Doherty and the Novak O’Doherty Collection, Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, 2013; Hello Sam by Brian O’Doherty, National Gallery of Ireland as part of Dublin Contemporary, 2011; Postwar American Art: the Novak/O’Doherty Collection, IMMA 2010; The Moderns: The Arts in Ireland from 1900s – 1970s, IMMA, 2010-2011; The Burial of Patrick Ireland, IMMA, 2008; Beyond the White Cube: A Retrospective of Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland, DCGHL, 2006; The Studio, co-curated with Jens Hoffmann, DCGHL, 2007; Tacita Dean, DCGHL, 2007.

The Artist’s Mother is the latest project in a series of responses as part of the IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016-2021. Inspired by Lucian Freud’s paintings of his mother, Lucie, this is the first presentation which interweaves digital and physical elements. Central to the project is the work of artist Chantal Joffe who has portrayed her mother, Daryll, in an exceptional series of paintings and pastels. More details here