b. 1985 in Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in the Southern Highlands of NSW
“I like to think that everything exists all at once. Or everything that has existed, still exists.”
Clara Adolphs’s practice centres on transforming found photographs into paintings that reexamine the boundary between past and present, proposing that time is not linear but continuous and coexisting. Rather than indulging in nostalgia, she treats
memory as something active and unresolved.
Drawing from anonymous archives—often sourced from flea markets, family albums, and online marketplaces—she builds a visual record of the 20th century, where personal histories have been detached from their original context. Rather than reconstructing these histories, she seeks moments of recognition and universality, using painting to bridge the gap between her own subjectivity and the lives of strangers. Through repetition, she paints the same image multiple times in pursuit of its ‘essence,’ valuing process, instinct, and imperfection over precision. Influenced by ideas of Roland Barthes, her work positions images not as reminders of absence, but as evidence of ongoing presence. Ultimately, Adolphs constructs an evolving, imagined world, where memory, identity, and time remain fluid, layered, and deeply interconnected.
Adolphs completed her Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in 2008. In 2025, Adolphs was a Finalist for the Ramsay Art Prize and the Archibald Prize, her second finalist nomination for the latter (formerly in 2019). She is also a finalist for the Wynne Prize (2022) and two-time finalist for the Sulman Prize (2021, 2019). In 2019 Adolphs completed the Spring/Summer Residency at the The Corridor Project, and in 2017 she was the recipient of the Eva Breuer Traveling Scholarship, travelling to Paris for a residency at the Cite International des Arts. She was the 2017 winner of the Mosman Art Prize Young Emerging Artist Award as well as a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship.
Her recent solo shows include Sleep Shadows at the Hugo Mitchell Gallery and All Eyes at CHALK HORSE. In 2024, Adolphs presented a new body of work for the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctrum curated by José Da Silva. She also presented a solo exhibition, Together Again, at Ngununggula Southern Highlands Regional Gallery — the largest solo exhibition of her works presented in Australia.
Her work has been selected for the cover of the New York Review of Books, RUSSH Magazine, and the 63rd issue of Artist Profile.
Adolphs lives and works on the lands of the Gundunggurra Nation.
