Clara Adolphs

Clara Adolphs, Richard Lewer, Zaachariaha Fielding, Ildiko Kovacs, and Josina Pumani announced as FINALISTS in the Archibald, Sir John Sulman, and Wynne Prizes

We are thrilled to share that Clara Adolphs and Richard Lewer have been announced as finalists in the 2025 Archibald Prize; and Zaachariaha Fielding and Ildiko Kovacs have been announced as finalists in the Sulman Prize! Also celebrating the inclusion of upcoming exhibiting artist Josina Pumani, who is also a finalist in the Wynne Prize.

The finalist exhibition will be presented from 10 May to 17 August 2025 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Clara Adolphs, Adrian Jangala Robertson (paintbrush and hat), 2025, oil on linen, 62.5 x 62.5 cm

About this painting, Clara states: "I first saw Adrian’s work at last year’s Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, and I was completely drawn in by a small painting of his depicting two figures, which I soon discovered were family members. I loved his use of colour and mark-making,’ says Clara Adolphs, who lives and works in the Southern Highlands, NSW. Her portrait subject, Adrian Jangala Robertson, is a Warlpiri man from the Central Western Desert region, who is also a finalist in this year’s Archibald.

I spoke to Adrian at the Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists studio a few times via video call, alongside the studio manager, before travelling to Mparntwe/Alice Springs for a few days of painting together. We come from different worlds but there are a lot of similarities in our work. He paints his family and I draw on old family photography. Adrian is non-speaking and English is his second language, but we communicated through our painting, sitting side by side,’ says Adolphs.

‘I took a lot of photos, as my usual work is photography-based. Back in my studio, I made several more portraits. This painting is quite simple, but I think it captures Adrian’s quiet confidence and self-assurance as a painter."

Richard Lewer, You are only as good as your last painting, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cm

Richard Lewer’s self-portrait depicts him stepping back to examine his painting, having taken off his glasses.

"This portrait is an exploration of artistic discipline and the relentless pursuit of improvement. The title of the work, You are only as good as your last painting, speaks to the collective experience of being an artist, the solitude of the studio, and the unending drive to make a painting better than your last,’ he says.

Born in Aotearoa New Zealand and based in Melbourne, Lewer is a five-time Archibald finalist.

"In the portrait, my clothes are flecked with the smears and splotches of paint from months in the studio. There is a physicality to the outfit; it is a palette, a uniform, and a record of repetition, routine and the discipline of making. The glasses in one hand and paintbrush in the other are metaphors for the act of looking and making; the tools of observation and inspiration."

Richard’s latest exhibition ‘The stories that persist are not always true’ is currently showing at Hugo Michell Gallery until 10 May 2025.

Zaachariaha Fielding, The Scandal - Nganalu Tjalamilanu Who Sold Out?, acrylic, ink and aerosols on linen, 240 x 198 cm, 2025. Photo by Andy Francis, courtesy of the APYACC

This work was born from discomfort – painted in the shadow of the APY Art Centre Collective scandal, but shaped by deeper questions. Who controls our stories? Are we selling stories or celebrating them? Why must Black success be regarded with suspicion or framed as cultural betrayal?

Cultural knowledge, once held in ceremony, now sits on canvas. Does this make us sellouts, mark us as survivors, or victors in a game we never designed?

This work doesn’t offer answers. It lives in the grey areas. It’s a protest. A prayer. A reminder that our stories are alive – and so are we. And no matter how they’re told – on cave walls or on canvases – they belong to us.


Ildiko Kovacs, Tracing light, 2025, oil and oil stick on plywood, 240 x 180 cm

About this painting, Ildiko states: "The afternoon sun falls onto my studio wall, cutting a beam of light through the translucent corrugated roof. The shadow it casts moves slowly across the painting I’m working on. Sometimes, the wind in the trees creates a jiggling line.

While contemplating the painting, I trace the light, following the shadowed line. It’s an intuitive response to the brightness and movement of the afternoon sun as it passes through my studio."



Josina Pumani, Ngayuku tjukurpa – Maralinga (My story – Maralinga), 2025, hand-built stoneware, underglaze, 69 x 49 x 48 cm irreg. Courtesy of the APYACC

Josina Pumani has been told the story of Maralinga since she was a little girl. "My family were hurt by the bombs,’ she explains. ‘Many Aṉangu got sick or died, including my uncle Yami Lester, who was blinded by the bomb."

Using the coil method to build her vessel, Pumani has given form to the British atomic weapons testing program undertaken in remote South Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. The effects of these tests were severe and have had lasting impacts on Aṉangu. She uses a vibrant red to represent the poison from the bombs and the internal grey to refer to the smoke. The texture and detailed depictions on the exterior form includes punu (trees), circling toxic winds, and Aṉangu gathering in a wiltja (shelter).

Pumani works through the APY Art Centre Collective’s Tarntanya/Adelaide studio and has been making ceramics since 2024. This is her first time as a finalist in the Wynne Prize.

We look forward to presenting an exhibition by Josina Pumani in September 2025.

Register your interest at mail@hugomichellgallery.com

Clara Adolphs showing in the 2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum

We are thrilled to celebrate Clara Adolphs' inclusion in the 'The Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum' is now showing at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Adolphs will present a new suite of paintings alongside over 20 artists, poets, and musicians, curated by José Da Silva.

“The Biennial unfolds across exhibitions, performances and talks that explore our engagement with the world and each other. Here the idea of an inner sanctum illustrates the private or sacred spaces we create and the faculty of imagination that allows us to see culture and society differently.

The 2024 Adelaide Biennial offers a snapshot of contemporary Australia that is reflective and hopeful. It provides a setting where art and poetry enliven the social imagination and help us understand the complexities of the human experience.”

2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum will be on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia from 1 March to 2 June 2024.

Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

 

Clara Adolphs feature article in Qantas Magazine

Clara Adolphs has been featured in the most recent issue of Artist Profile magazine.

About Adolphs' painting practice, Susan Horsburgh writes: “Like old photos, Adolphs’ paints allude to a constancy, suggesting that our experiences aren’t so different from those of our grandparents. “The wider world and society might change but the human condition doesn’t.”.

Clara Adolphs’ exhibition ‘Silent Reply’ is showing at Hugo Michell Gallery until 20th May.

Enquiries to mail@hugomichellgallery.com

 

Pictured: Qantas ‘Travel Insider’ Magazine, May 2023; Cover to pp 131-135.

Clara Adolphs and Fiona McMonagle announced as finalists in the 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize

We are thrilled to share that Clara Adolphs and Fiona McMonagle have been shortlisted for the 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize.

The 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize is a signature event that showcases the diversity and excellence of Australian contemporary painting practice. Through these prizes, staged since 1938, the Gallery has amassed an exceptional representation of Australian paintings whilst supporting contemporary practitioners. Showcasing the best of contemporary Australian painting practice, this $30,000 acquisitive award and biennial exhibition will feature 28 works by leading and emerging Australian artists. Collectively, the stylistic approaches and thematic range of these works reflect the currency and relevance of painting today.

The 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize finalist exhibition will be on show at Geelong Gallery in Victoria from 25 June to 11 September 2022, with the recipient of the $30,000 acquisitive 2022 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize to be announced on Friday 15 July at 6pm.

Finalists in the 2022 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize

The 2022 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Art Prize finalists have been announced! 

Richard Lewer  has been announced as a finalist for the Archibald Prize; and Clara Adolphs is a finalist in the Wynne Prize. Congratulations to Richard and Clara!

Presented by Art Gallery of New South Wales, the exhibition will run from 14 May – 28 August 2022.

The Archibald Prize, first awarded in 1921, is Australia’s favourite art award, and one of its most prestigious. Awarded to the best portrait painting, a who’s who of Australian culture – from politicians to celebrities, sporting heroes to artists.

This is the fourth time that Richard Lewer has been represented in the Archibald Prize with a portrait of Elizabeth Laverty. “And I will keep painting her for as long as she’ll let me, or until we win!” says Lewer, whose practice has long explored the endurance, consistency and discipline that is required as an artist.

Laverty and her late husband, Sydney pathologist Colin Laverty, built one of Australia’s most significant collections of contemporary art, while supporting the Indigenous communities they visited.

“Liz is not just involved in the arts; she has many facets to her life. It is an honour to deepen my understanding of her past, present and future with each passing year. Nowadays, Liz is more vulnerable in many ways than when I first met her, yet she remains vibrant and open. She is well-informed on contemporary issues, socially adept and outward-looking. Liz continues to give back,” says Lewer.

“I have painted her daily morning ritual, sitting at the breakfast table surrounded by newspapers, planning her day in her heavily inscribed diary.”

As part of a major commissioning program to celebrate the opening of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new building in late 2022, Lewer has created portraits of the many people involved in the construction of the Sydney Modern Project.

About this work Clara Adolphs shares: “I began painting clouds as a kind of backdrop for my figurative works, although they soon revealed themselves as the centrepiece. They are figurative beings, towering and monumental. Their formations are in a state of constant flux. The painting is one moment in their time of continuous change.

This particular cloud, a Cumulus congestus, was painted from a formation accumulating on the afternoon of Christmas Day, 2021. These clouds bring rain and unsettled weather, but from afar it was a perfect day.”

The exhibition will run from 14 May – 28 August 2022 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Hugo Michell gallery Open: Clara Adolphs + Laura Wills

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of ‘One Eye Open’ by Clara Adolphs and ‘Clouded’ by Laura Wills.
*Please note*
-If you wish to join us for the opening of these exhibitions, RSVP is essential to mail@hugomichellgallery.com
-Guests for the exhibition opening are required to wear a mask.
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‘One Eye Open’ by Clara Adolphs draws upon the artists vast archive of collected photographs, recontextualising the individuals who populate them. The works are filled with solitary figures and quiet, pensive moments; moments that seem to slip away as suddenly as the paint has been applied to the canvas. Working quickly and with purpose, Adolphs allows the paint to take on a life of its own.
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An exploration of place, ‘Clouded’ by Laura Wills has been informed by a residency undertaken in Emu Bay, Kangaroo Island. As a landscape only recently devastated by bushfires, Wills observed the epicormic growth of trees and plants – previously dormant fauna activated by smoke. Her drawings speak of her own perceptions; looking at seeds, trees, leaves, soil, all changing with time, season, and fire.
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Exhibition runs from: 2 September – 2 October
Official Exhibition opening: Thursday 2 September 6-8pm


Hugo Michell Gallery acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

Hugo Michell Gallery Open: Paul Yore + Clara Adolphs

Hugo Michell Gallery invites you to the opening of Paul Yore’s ‘Crown of Thorns’ and Clara Adolphs’ ‘In Between Days’ on Thursday 6th February 6-8pm.

Gippsland-based artist Paul Yore’s solo exhibition ‘Crown of Thorns’ brings together new textiles, assemblages and collages, continuing the artist’s decade-long personal and candid investigation into the intersection of religion, sex, politics and popular culture. Taking its title from a passage in the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus is mockingly dressed in purple and adorned with a crown of twisted thorns, Yore’s exhibition readily draws upon the iconography of his Catholic upbringing, most notably the cross or crucifixion. However, Yore’s irreverent treatment of traditional subjects is laced with a queer critique of the foundational institutions of “Western” society; specifically the moralising presence of a corrupt Church, and its role in propping up a broken political system, a dynamic which in turn has fueled centuries of colonial violence, as well as the subjugation of women, trans and queer people.

“Bundanoon-based artist Clara Adolphs is becoming somewhat of a fixture in the art prize and award circuit. An Archibald finalist in 2016 and 2019, and collecting the 2017 Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship, the artist mines an archive of castoff vintage photographs to make works that contemplate the passing of time and the universality of small moments.
To capture her anonymous, enigmatic subjects, Adolphs turns to a palette knife and brush, working quickly with thick impasto paint in a kind of performance that reimagines and replays the lost moment within the photograph’s frame.” – Varia Karipoff (via Art Guide)

Please join us in celebrating the launch of our first exhibitions for 2020!

Exhibition runs until FRIDAY 6 March.

Hugo Michell Gallery acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.