Vermillion Flowers Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Vermillion Flowers
Vermillion Flowers 2018
Vermillion FlowersClara AdolphsVermillion Flowers
Vermillion Flowers2018
Oil On Polyester
84 x 84 cm
SOLD 
Seashells Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Seashells
Seashells 2018
SeashellsClara AdolphsSeashells
Seashells2018
Oil On Polyester
67 x 92 cm
SOLD 
Afternoon Scene Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Afternoon  Scene
Afternoon Scene 2017
Afternoon SceneClara AdolphsAfternoon  Scene
Afternoon Scene2017
oil on linen
76 x 84 cm
SOLD 
Violet Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Violet
Violet 2018
VioletClara AdolphsViolet
Violet2018
Oil On Polyester
56 x 36 cm
SOLD 
The Hall Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - The Hall
The Hall 2018
The HallClara AdolphsThe Hall
The Hall2018
Oil On Polyester
69 x 92 cm
SOLD 
Burning Cane Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Burning Cane
Burning Cane 2018
Burning CaneClara AdolphsBurning Cane
Burning Cane2018
oil on polyester
71 x 107 cm
SOLD 
Mackay Splash Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Mackay Splash
Mackay Splash 2018
Mackay SplashClara AdolphsMackay Splash
Mackay Splash2018
oil on poly linen
117 x 168 cm
SOLD 
Cremorne Flooded Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Cremorne Flooded
Cremorne Flooded 2018
Cremorne FloodedClara AdolphsCremorne Flooded
Cremorne Flooded2018
Oil On Polyester
77 x 97 cm
SOLD 
6Pm Mount Pleasant Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - 6Pm Mount Pleasant
6Pm Mount Pleasant 2017
6Pm Mount PleasantClara Adolphs6Pm Mount Pleasant
6Pm Mount Pleasant2017
oil on linen
64 x 72 cm
SOLD 
Victoria Street Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Victoria Street
Victoria Street 2018
Victoria StreetClara AdolphsVictoria Street
Victoria Street2018
Oil On Polyester
82 x 72 cm
SOLD 
School Games Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - School Games
School Games 2018
School GamesClara AdolphsSchool Games
School Games2018
Oil On Polyester
71 x 102 cm
SOLD 
Main Street Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Main Street
Main Street 2018
Main StreetClara AdolphsMain Street
Main Street2018
oil on polyester
75 x 60 cm
SOLD 
Haumana Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Haumana
Haumana 2018
HaumanaClara AdolphsHaumana
Haumana2018
oil on polyester
53 x 53 cm
NFS  ENQUIRE
Yellow Smoke Clara Adolphs Clara Adolphs - Yellow Smoke
Yellow Smoke 2017
Yellow SmokeClara AdolphsYellow Smoke
Yellow Smoke2017
oil on linen
51 x 56 cm
SOLD 

Sydney born figurative painter Clara Adolphs spent time in Central Queensland in 2017, participating in Artspace Mackay’s vibrant Artist in Residence Program. Her culminating exhibition Familiar Distance is a collection of paintings examining Mackay’s past and present. Exploring old photographs, newspaper clippings and making personal observations Adolphs has created an image of Mackay over time, a collection of everyday happenings that formed part of this historically important town’s and social fabric.

Born in Sydney, Clara Adolphs is a three-time finalist of the Portia Geach Memorial Prize, the Mosman Art Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, as well as the Salon des Refuses, and Paddington Art Prize. In 2017 she was awarded the Eva Breuer Traveling Art Scholarship through the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2015, Adolphs won Second Prize in the Outback Art Prize at Broken Hill Regional Gallery, and was named a finalist in the 2016 Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor Terry Serio.

Familiar Distance will be exhibited at Artspace Mackay 10 August - 28 October 2018.

Please contact [email protected] 07 3358 6555 for enquires.

Like the hazy recollections of an ageing mind, Clara Adolphs’s paintings cling to scarcely remembered histories and brief encounters between friends and strangers. The result of Adolphs’s fascination with old photos and the life stories they represent, each work is a melancholy study in mortality and the impermanence of memory.

Using photographs collected from flea markets and old newspaper clippings, Adolphs reimagines the anonymous faces and locations in thick impasto paint, working quickly to capture the stories that emerge. Male figures dominate, as Adolphs finds herself drawn repeatedly to observing how men’s experience of the world differs from that of women.

The decision to use found images rather than those from her own collection is a considered one, giving Adolphs the emotional distance to paint intuitively and without sentiment. Free to reconstruct their ambiguous narratives, she immortalises otherwise fleeting moments of human experience as something beautiful and tangible, and not easily forgotten.

Born in Sydney, Clara Adolphs is a three-time finalist of the Portia Geach Memorial Prize, the Mosman Art Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, as well as the Sir John Sulman Prize, Salon des Refuses, Paddington Art Prize and the Sunshine Coast Art Prize. In 2017 she was awarded the Eva Breuer Traveling Art Scholarship through the Art Gallery of New South Wales as well as the Young Emerging Artist Award of the Mosman Art Prize. In 2015, Adolphs won Second Prize in the Outback Art Prize at Broken Hill Regional Gallery. Most recently, Adolphs was named a finalist in the 2019 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Rosemary Laing and Geoff Kleem. In 2016 she was named a finalist in the Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor Terry Serio.

Carrie McCarthy

Clara Adolphs

EDUCATION

2008

  • Bachelor of Fine Art with Painting and Drawing Major, University of New South Wales

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019

  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane

2018

  • 'Too Early To Sleep', Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney
  • 'Remembering Words’, Goulburn Regional Gallery
  • 'Familiar Distance', Artspace Mackay, Mackay

2017

  • 'Creatures', Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane

2016

  • 'Cahoots', Mick Gallery, Sydney
  • 'Mind Games', Lindberg Gallery, Melbourne

2015

  • 'Thursday', Mick Gallery, Sydney

2014

  • 'The Man in Me', Mick Gallery, Sydney

2012

  • 'Augenblicke', Mick Gallery, Sydney

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019

  • 'The New Gallery Show - Group Exhibition', Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane

2018

  • '10th Anniversary Exhibition', Edwina Corlette Gallery
  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Edwina Corlette Gallery
  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Chalk Horse Gallery

2017

  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Edwina Corlette Gallery
  • The Clayton Utz Art Partnership, Sydney

2016

  • Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship Finalist Exhibition, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
  • Birmingham Street Studios Exhibition, Art Month, Sydney

2015

  • Summer Exhibition, Home@735 Gallery, Sydney
  • Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship Finalist Exhibition, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
  • 'Mug Shot', Gallery Ecosse, Exeter

2013

  • Summer Show, MiCK Gallery, Sydney
  • Collectors Space Exhibition, Art Month, Sydney

2012

  • Recent Work, Sydney Children’s Hospital Art Program, Sydney

AWARDS AND PRIZES

2019

  • Finalist, Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
  • Finalist, Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
  • Finalist, Glover Art Prize, Tasmania

2018

  • Finalist, Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery, QLD
  • Finalist, Stanthorpe Art Prize, Stanthorpe Regional Gallery, NSW

2017

  • Winner, Young Emerging Artist Award, Mosman Art Prize
  • Winner, Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

2016

  • Finalist, Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

2015

  • Second, Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery
  • Finalist, Paddington Art Prize
  • Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Sydney
  • Finalist, Mosman Art Prize

2014

  • Finalist, Portia Geach Memorial Award
  • Finalist, Mosman Art Prize
  • Finalist, Salon Des Refuse, SH Ervin Gallery
  • Winner, Bowral Indoor Sculpture Prize, BDAS Gallery

2013

  • Finalist, Portia Geach Memorial Award
  • Semi-finalist, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
  • Commended, John Copes Watercolour Prize
  • Finalist, Mosman Art Prize
  • Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Sydney

2012

  • Semi-finalist, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
  • Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Sydney
  • Winner, Young Emerging Artist Award, Mosman Art Prize
  • Finalist, Metro Art Award
  • Highly commended, BDAS Young Artist’s Prize

2011

  • Finalist, Metro Art Award
  • Commended, BDAS Art on Paper Prize

2010

  • Winner, Judges Recommendation Prize, Hornsby Art Prize
  • Winner, North Sydney Youth Award
  • Highly commended, Arc Yinnar Drawing Prize
  • Finalist, Blacktown City Art Prize
  • Finalist, Norvill Art Prize
  • Finalist, St George Art Award

2009

  • Finalist, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize
  • Finalist, Liverpool City Art Prize

RESIDENCIES

2018

  • Residency with Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2017

  • Residency with Artspace Mackay, Mackay Regional

2016

  • Residency with Leigh Creek, Country Arts, South Australia
  • Residency with The Armory, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney

2014

  • Residency with New York Studio Art School, New York

COLLECTIONS

  • Goulburn Regional Gallery
  • Artspace Mackay

January 20, 2019

JOHN MCDONALD REVIEWS CLARA ADOLPHS FOR THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

John McDonald highlights Clara Adolphs practice in the Good Weekend Magazine:

'Clara Adolphs is not the first artist to be fascinated by the old photographs one finds in flea markets and junk shops. These faded snapshots, intended to immortalise loved ones and special events, have become mysteries, as we cannot identify people and places. Nevertheless it's easy to recall similar holidays and family outings, and enjoy a sense of familiarity.

It's in the nature of snapshots to concentrate on moments of leisure, and this is reflected in paintings such as Sunbather, where a woman relaxes in a deck chair, or Daylight Hours (pictured), in which three figures lie stretched out on the grass.'

READ MORE HERE

September 29, 2017

MOSMAN ART PRIZE EMERGING ARTIST AWARD: CLARA ADOLPHS

Clara Adolphs has won the Mosman Art Prize Emerging Artist Award for her portrait Sal, 2017 for her portrait of artist and friend Sally Anderson. This is the second time Clara has been awarded the prize.

Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble, at a time when only a small handful of art prizes were in existence in Australia and the community had very little support and few opportunities to exhibit their work.

Clara Adolphs Sal, 2017, oil on linen, 83 x 67cm

29 August 2018 – 15 September 2018
THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

10 August 2018 – 28 October 2018
CLARA ADOLPHS 'Familiar Distance' at ARTSPACE MACKAY