Clara Adolphs, Snow Men, 2018. Oil on poly cotton, 125 x 135cm. Courtesy: the artist and Chalk Horse, Sydney.

In this exhibition, Clara Adolphs injects dynamism into her subjects by increasing the tension between the impasto paint and her omission of colour. The new series of work shows Adolphs working at a larger scale. “The photographs I work with are mostly very small and in blowing them up, the figures and objects in the image become increasingly abstract, so I am required to create detail that isn’t there,” she said. “But at the same time, it is important not to get too tied down in detail.”

In blowing up the photographic image by translating it into a large painting, Adolphs attempts to grapple with all of the complexities that are not immediately visible in its original form. She seems to extract something that is deeply encoded within photograph, something that feeds into our own memories and experiences.

Exhibition opens: 6–8pm Thursday 5 December 2019

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