There’s something hauntingly familiar about artist Clara Adolphs’ work. Faces suspended in time, gestures caught mid-thought – her paintings feel like distant memories you can almost touch. Working primarily from vintage photographs, Adolphs translates fleeting moments into layered brushstrokes, mining the everyday for its poetry. Her muted palettes and softened edges invite you to linger, to wonder who these people are. It's a practice rooted not just in nostalgia, but in deep curiosity. At the heart of her journey is a decade-long creative kinship with CHALK HORSE gallerist Jasper Knight – an ally and champion whose belief in Adolphs’ vision helped shape her path from emerging talent to one of Australia’s most quietly arresting painters. In a world obsessed with immediacy, Adolphs invites us to pause, and feel the slow magic of remembering.

JK: Where did we meet, and how long ago was it?

CA: You owned the Gallery Ecosse in the Southern Highlands, and I moved down there in 2013, and I met a lot of people through that.

JK: Yes, and lots of painters actually moved to that area around then, that's right. That was 2014, so we've known each other for what? 11 years? And then fast forward a few years, and you had your first show at the gallery here.

CA: I think my first showing was at Sydney Contemporary with you guys, after I'd come back from that Paris residency in 2018. I felt like that was a really important time.

JK: So was that before your first show at the gallery?

CA: Yeah, I had my first solo the same year as Sydney Contemporary.

JK: The classic double.

CA: That was all after the Paris residency at the Cité. I won the Evan Brewer scholarship and had a three-month residency at the Cité des Arts.

JK: And beyond that, we're both painters; we're both in the Sydney painting circle. Lots of common friends. So, following that first show, fast forward 11 years, we’ve both had families, and we’ve both established careers. Mine shifted slightly towards running a gallery much more seriously. You've obviously established yourself as an incredible artist – not that you weren't before. But from what I've seen over the years, it's just been unbelievable to watch, and I'm incredibly proud as well. To watch people for over a decade is an amazing thing.

CA: I think, also, the main thing is that you've given me these big opportunities to push myself. I think the biggest one was the Singapore Art Fair, that solo that was only a few years ago. That felt like a big step up.

JK: That was a big step up, and we did a book for that as well. It might have been small publication, but I think doing publications and doing major art fairs as a solo project, not only does it allow people to see you, but it kind of treats you as an international artist – not just as an artist on a gallery roster in Sydney. As a result, people see you internationally in other galleries. Galleries start talking to you. It opens up conversations.

And part of the excitement is that we don't know what's going to happen. You're getting out of your comfort zone, you're painting... not an uncomfortable amount of work, but you're painting a large body of work for an unknown place that is untested. In that scenario, we’re all going to do something that requires a lot of work for a medium-sized Australian gallery to do. The logistics alone are amazing. And so that is a good segue into us having just spent time together in Paris. It's the first time you've shown there. How was that experience?

CA: It was pretty good… I mean, it was amazing. I’ll always remember that first moment when we walked into the Grand Palais to do the install on that Tuesday morning. Just walking into that building was incredible. And to think that we were exhibiting there, being a part of its history, was something else.

JK: Yes, when you look at the history of that building and the fact that they just renovated it too.

CA: And you look back at old photos, looking through the other exhibitions they've had there 100 years ago – and now we’re part of that history too.

JK: I think we brought something that was genuinely world class. Just from the number of people that came through. We met the Deputy Mayor of Paris, the deputy Australian Ambassador – big deal people. Attendees coming through were at like, 5000 people on Friday night. Incredible sales throughout the whole of Europe, people catching the Eurostar to get there, people traveling from other countries. It was really an incredible thing. It was wonderful. And it felt like it was a communal thing. You had your family there – your parents, your son – your friend Sally flew over and was on the booth with us, which was amazing. And she speaks German, French and English, which was helpful! Elle [Charalambu] and I were there, proud as punch, working super hard. It was just a really special time for the gallery and for you.

CA: It did feel like the feedback was good, you know, because you just never know. And especially being in a different country as well. You just don’t know how you're going to come across, but it did feel positive.

JK: And the fair felt very professional as well. Like, the Director knew that you had been in the Adelaide Biennial. There were 150 galleries, so imagine the amount of artists at that fair, and for him to be able to recount certain career highlights of Clara Adolphs on the spot, I was genuinely impressed.

Back to the here and now, we're sitting in the [CHALK HORSE] gallery in Sydney, and it's the return of your show. We thought we'd bring it back to CHALK HORSE for everyone to see who missed out in Paris. This is not all of it, because obviously, some of it remained in Europe that was sold there. I thought I'd turn to process. People are aware of your work. They've seen it in lots of different prizes and in print. I've always loved the pencil marks, the use of exposed canvas and the reduced palette. Could you talk a little bit about your process?

CA: Well, I suppose I primarily use old photographs, and I have been doing that for a while now. I'm always going to find something interesting from these references, and the more I go into it, the more I want to continue with it. So, I use old photographs and kind of recreate them on a larger scale, because all of these photographs are really quite tiny when you hold them in your hand. I get them from all over the world: I buy them on eBay; I get them from flea markets, from all over, you know. So, they come from all different cultures and countries and they're all anonymous to me. I like that there's something unknown about them – there's mystery behind it.

JK: Sometimes they have pencil markings, yeah, writing on the back of the photos? How fascinating.

CA: Yeah, and to tell you the truth, this all started from when I was young, going through albums that I had in my home that my dad kept in his study. I'd always be looking through them. I have German and Latvian heritage, so there would always be photographs of people in albums that I knew were family or friends, but I didn't really know who they were.

JK: I see that in your paintings. It's like you can feel their presence, and you kind of feel like you know them, but they also feel like they could be anyone. I think people really feel that in your work as well. That's why they're attracted to it.

CA: I do strive for a kind of universality.

JK: I think that works, because everyone reads into art differently. Especially when we were in Europe, everyone from all different countries read into that. And whatever their culture was, they found something in that.

CA: I find that's when I feel my work is the most successful, when you can get people from anywhere to find something familiar within my work.

But back to my process – so, I use old photographs, and usually they're quite small, and recreate them on a much larger scale. So, in that way, they become abstracted. It’s not like it's a complete copy of the photo itself. I'm always shifting figures around and moving things in and out of the photograph, I do like to breathe new life into these old photos as well.

JK: Okay, so that's just based on how you feel in the studio. What about the application of paint and the decision to leave the canvas exposed?

CA: Well I suppose I really have an interest in light as well. And also, that abstraction from the small image to the larger painting you are kind of left with all these areas of information that you have to recreate yourself. Because it's such a small image, you've got these large spaces that you have to fill in.

JK: I never really thought about that. Sometimes your work can be 3–4 meters. How do you transfer that to a painting?

CA: I suppose I have to fill in those gaps, but then I also make the decision to leave a lot of things out. And that’s just a personal, intuitive process. A lot of it has to do with the light, and I think that makes the painting sing.

JK: Speaking of light, where do you actually work, and how do you split your time between home and work?

CA: I have a home studio, and then I also have a studio in a warehouse in an industrial estate about half an hour from my home. I had my child about five years ago, and so it was really important to have a home studio at that time. Up until last year, I was just working from home, but then when I made some really large works for my show at Ngununggula, I needed a larger space and so have since been working in this warehouse too. I like having different working environments. I also do still really like working from home and having that domestic life as well – and not having to go to the office every day.

JK: You can see a whole show around you, instead of just working on individual works, one at a time. I think that's so important, especially working at your scale.

CA: And it’s nice to have some other artists around there as well. It's good to have some friends.

JK: I agree. My studio is filled with different people. I mean, not all artists like to work like that. I know some people who like to work by themselves, and that's a very important part of their process.

CA: I'm in both camps.

JK: It sounds like you can dip in and out of both, and that's a very lucky place to be. And maybe there's a reflection of you making some of your best work today. Who knows.

Let's talk about the major work in the front room of the gallery, the All Eyes diptych. To me, this work is about family and memory on surface value, but at the same time, there's obviously an uneasiness about all of these eyes looking directly at you. It's no wonder that the show's called All Eyes; it's a focal point.

CA: That's one photograph that I mirrored to make two images. I've made a few works like this, where the figures in the painting are really looking back at the audience. And that's because it's a photograph of the people in it looking into the camera. But I think that once it's then made into a painting, and they’re looking out into the audience like that, there is quite an unease about it. I think with that amount of people as well…

JK: Something happens. There's some magic that happens between you, the photo being a place of love and family and togetherness, and you repurposing it, blowing it up and turning it into a painting. It suddenly gets to a place of haziness, where a viewer comes and sees it as a stranger, and suddenly they're looking at... you. I think that's where the real beauty of your work is. You've caught something there.

CA: I think it really escalates that idea of uneasiness with the scale as well. The crowd is kind of like a mountain in a way, and I've got a few mountains in my exhibition as well.

JK: I think that’s really successful. And it’s almost like, new ground for you in terms of straight landscape views and straight, single portraiture. It's like suddenly you're playing with the idea of what landscape is and what these photographs are, and how they play into each other. It’s a little bit unnerving as well.

Another major work is the cloud study – February 13th (single cloud) – in the back room of the show, which is probably your largest single panel cloud to date. It’s almost four meters.

CA: This is a work that I made last year for my Ngununggula show. I made a room of clouds, and this was one cloud study. It's a very big study, but the actual work that I made after this was a four-panel, eight meters by two and a half meters. That work was huge. This is a formation of clouds that was moving past my house on February 13, 2024, so that’s the title of the work.

JK: I just think the use of the raw canvas here, what you were talking about when you use that, when you're looking at an image and start blowing it up to scale, it’s really effective here in terms of looking past the actual surface image, and getting depth into the painting. When you're looking up at the sky, there's so much depth in it.

CA: With the piece that I showed in Ngununggula (and that's going to also be in the Ramsay Prize), I wanted the audience to be immersed in it.

JK: Because you had a survey show at Ngununggula, which took over the whole gallery, and did have a full cloud room. Which brings us to the upcoming Ramsay Prize – it's one of the biggest art prizes in Australia.

CA: It’s very exciting. And it's for artists 40 years and under – so I’m just sliding in there.

JK: I thought it was for 30 years and under [laughs]. The thing is that you're back at the Art Gallery of South Australia, where you had a very successful Biennial, and it's a major, major work. And there's very few artists in it. It’s a very large work, so in terms of what you said about stepping into works and being immersed, I'm sure that will be an incredible experience.

CA: It’ll be great to see that work in a different setting.

JK: Now speaking of prizes – the 2025 Archibald. I believe this is your third time hanging in the Archibald, and you've painted Adrian Jangala Robertson. How did you come to paint him?

CA: I was asked by Arts-Matter to work on a book called Artists By Artists, and I had to choose an artist that I wanted to paint. I saw Adrian's work last year at the Darwin Art Fair, and I just loved it. I fell in love with it straight away and bought a few of his pieces.

JK: Love at first sight. I didn’t know that.

CA: He was actually a finalist in the Wynne, Archibald and Sulman last year too.

JK: Yeah, and they've hung your works together this year, which is fabulous. They complement each other in terms of scale. They look so beautiful together.

CA: I went and visited him at the Art Center where he works in Alice Springs last November [2024], and we just had a few days painting together. We painted each other’s portraits. And that is the portrait that I entered in the Archibald. I’m just so happy to have it up there on the wall, and next to his work as well.

JK: I didn't know any of that, so I'm really glad I asked. So, after the Adelaide Biennial, the Ngununggula survey show, Cité des Arts Paris, the Ramsay Prize and the Archibald, what is next?

CA: I do have a show with Hugo Mitchell in Adelaide in August. And then I have a show in Barcelona later in the year. I’m getting back to the studio, I've got a lot of work to do in the next few months. I’m getting back into the swing of making work, working on new shows, new ideas. And I do always say, “Oh, I do need a bit of time off just to make work without thinking of a show in mind”. But at the same time, I'm always happy that I've got something to work towards.

JK: Are you an artist that goes crazy if you're not in the studio?

CA: I'm always in the studio, but I went for a bit of a holiday after Paris this year, and it felt like it was a bit too long to be away.

JK: Did you get a lot out of that in terms of source material?

CA: Yeah, absolutely. New imagery, new postcards, new source material. It's always good. I can't help it.

JK: Well, we're very proud to have this show on at CHALK HORSE. It’s been an amazing year at the gallery with you, and you've been incredibly generous with your time. And it’s been a great relationship between us so far, and long may it continue.

Clara Adolphs is represented by CHALK HORSE (Sydney), Hugo Michell Gallery Adelaide and Victor Lope (Barcelona).

Feature image (left): Two Men I, 2025, oil on linen, 124 x 99 cm. Feature image (right): Dive, 2025, oil on linen, 91.5 x 68 cm.