Evening Talk: In Conversation with Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough

Find out about the creative collaboration behind an extraordinary exhibition celebrating the beauty of the everyday. Join exhibition co-curators and close friends Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough to hear about their long-standing friendship, artistic practices and the extraordinary job they did of creating an exhibition filled with artworks that depict the ordinary. This enlightening evening talk will be chaired by Kirstie Hamilton, Sheffield Museums Director of Programmes, and presents a special opportunity to hear directly from the artists about their work, inspiration, and lives. Good Morning: A Day in Art by Chantal Joffe & Ishbel Myerscough traces the unfolding of a single day through the eyes of more than 80 artists. Presenting Ishbel and Chantal's deeply personal paintings and drawings alongside works from Sheffield’s collection by William Blake, Prunella Clough, Paul Gauguin, David Hockney, Claudette Johnson and more, the exhibition celebrates the quiet significance of ordinary experience. Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She completed a Foundation Course at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in 1988; a BA in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art in 1991 and an MA at the Royal College of Art in 1994. Whether her canvases measure ten inches or ten feet, Joffe aims not for realism but for brutal honesty. Joffe’s work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including The Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts; National Portrait Gallery, London; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Ishbel Myerscough (b. 1968) studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1987-91. She painted in Glasgow for two years, before going to the Slade School of Art to do a postgraduate course in 1993. At her studies, she was awarded a travel scholarship to New York. On returning to England, she had her second exhibition with Anthony Mould, then travelled back to the USA, invited by Robert and Susan Summers to paint in their studios on their artist programme in Connecticut. Finally, she settled in London and has lived and worked there since. She has taught at the Royal Drawing School for 14 years. She won the National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award in 1995 and completed two portrait commissions for the Gallery’s collection, of Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Willard White. She was represented by Anthony Mould for 20 years, having several exhibitions with him, and is now represented by Flowers Gallery. She has exhibited extensively; recent solo shows include Transhumance, for Flowers Gallery Hong Kong in 2024-25 and Grief, Longing and Love at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, 2020. This event complements the exhibition Good Morning: A Day in Art by Chantal Joffe & Ishbel Myerscough which continues at Millennium Gallery until 17 January. Image Credit: Chantal Joffe, Self-Portrait with Esme at Bedtime, 2018 © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro. Photo by Jack Hems