Jasper Joffe
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2009) |
Jasper Joffe is a British contemporary artist and novelist.
Life and work
Jasper Joffe was born in the United States in 1975 and moved to England when he was eight. He is the brother of artist Chantal Joffe. He studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. He completed an MA in painting at The Royal College of Art in London and received a scholarship to the British School at Rome, where he spent nine months. He has had solo exhibitions in London, Rome and Milan. He is the author of "Water" published by Telegram Books in 2006.
In 2004, Joffe exhibited at Rosy Wilde gallery in East London.[1] In 2007 he organised the Free Art Fair in central London. It was an art exhibition where all the art works that were in the exhibition were given away at the end of the exhibition. Other artists who exhibited at the Free Art Fair included Harry Pye, Bruce McLean, and Bob and Roberta Smith. The event was intended to contrast the Free Art Fair with another art fair that was occurring at the same time (October 2007), known as the Frieze Art Fair. In the opinion of many artists and people interested in art, the latter fair had commercialism as its primary purpose, not the display of works of art. By all accounts, the timing and execution of the Free Art Fair was indeed effective. The giveaway of the works of art received live coverage on BBC News 24, and a queue formed overnight. The Free Art Fair returned in 2008 with 50 artists participating and a program of performance art organised by Lee Campbell and Frog Morris. A catalogue included an interview with Lewis Hyde author of "The Gift". Artists giving work away included Gavin Turk, Marta Marce, Martin Sexton, Stephen Farthing, and Stella Vine. People queued for three nights in order to have a chance to get a piece of art.
Joffe painted 24 paintings in 24 hours at the Chisenhale Gallery in 1999, each canvas was 12 feet by 6 feet. In 2000 he repeated the feat in Milan at Laura Pecci Gallery, althogh this time the paintings were a variety of sizes. In 2003 he did 72 paintings in 72 hours at Brno House of Arts in the Czech Republic. The canvases this time being the same sizes at Goya painted between 1789 and 1815. He aimed with these shows to challenge the convention of painting being a slow process in the studio, and by working under extreme pressure produce original paintings. [citation needed]
Joffe's exhibition "Beauty Show" at the V22 Gallery in London (January-February 2008) caused controversy. Charles Saatchi purchased a painting of the famous Nazi officer, Heinrich Himmler, from the show. This raised questions about whether or not it is appropriate to exhibit paintings of such evil historical figures. The use of art as satire seems to be lost on those people who would not allow total and complete freedom of expression for any and all artists.
Joffe is also the founder and regular contributor to the contemporary art and cultural reviews site worldwidereview which allows people from around the world open access to read and write criticism.
He is based in London.
Notes and references
- ^ Jasper Joffe exhibition at Rosy Wilde gallery, 2004. Retrieved 6 Jnauray 2009.