Jasper Joffe is a British contemporary artist and novelist.
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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.
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, although 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.
Joffe's exhibition "Beauty Show" at the V22 Gallery in London (January-February 2008) caused controversy due to its featuring a pastel painting of Heinrich Himmler, which was bought by Charles Saatchi.
In 2009 Joffe, having left his gallery and been left by his girlfriend, sold all his possessions and paintings in "The Sale of a Lifetime" at Idea Generation Galllery in London.[2][3]
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 a tutor at City and Guilds of London Art School[4]
He is based in London.
In 2010 Joffe debated whether "art fairs are about money" with Louisa Buck, Matthew Collings, and Joffe for the motion and against the motion Norman Rosenthal, Richard Wentworth, Matthew Slotover.[5] Joffe claims that his criticisms of Frieze Art Fair led to his work being banned from the fair in 2010. Matthew Slotover, director of Frieze Art Fair had taken part in the debate on art fairs. [6]