Work of Chantal Joffe celebrated in major solo exhibition at The Lowry

Personal Feeling is the Main Thing will open on 19 May as part of The Lowry’s biennial Week 53 festival (17 – 28 May) and will run until 2 September. It will feature around 50 paintings from throughout Joffe’s career.

Chantal Joffe brings a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. In her depiction of women or girls, sometimes in groups but recently in iconic portraits, she explores themes including the transition from childhood to adolescence and motherhood.

The works confront the physicality of the human body and the complexities of human emotions in a remarkable combination of clarity, honesty and empathetic warmth.

Shown alongside will be works, selected by Joffe, by the German expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907). Modersohn-Becker died shortly after giving birth to her first child, at the age of 31. Today, she is recognised as being among the first female artists to paint a nude self-portrait and, later, a series of self-portraits while she was pregnant.

Personal Feeling is the Main Thing runs from 19 May – 2 September 2018. Plan your visit at thelowry.com/Chantal-Joffe.