Clara Joyce

Clara Joyce employs techniques of stain painting and layering to generate luminous material accumulations. Her work channels subconscious states, creating vaporous visual fields that offer speculative blueprints of the inner world. The paintings exist as an attempt to access realms between the seen and felt, and give form to forces which resist capture. Engaging with the aesthetic unconscious as a magnetic field — a space of both attraction and repulsion — her work captures the tension and release inherent in psychic exploration.

Clara Joyce (born Boorloo/Perth, lives Naarm/Melbourne) holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from VCA and is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Art at Monash University after earning the top results in her Honours year. Her work has recently been exhibited by Caves at Spring 1883, Syrup Contemporary, Ordinance, Cathedral Cabinet and Cache. Her work will debut with the gallery at the Melbourne Art Fair in February, before a solo exhibition at Daine Singer in late 2026.
Education
2026 Masters of Fine Arts by Research, Monash University, Caufield, Melbourne
2023 Honours of Fine Arts, Monash University, Caufield, Melbourne
2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, Melbourne
Solo exhibitions
2025 An Applied Anatomy of Spirit, Ordinance, Melbourne
2024 Breathing and Chaos, Cachè, Melbourne
2023 Clara Joyce Paintings, Cathedral Cabinet, Melbourne
2021 Vitalise Surface Clothing the Screen, Cool Change Contemporary, Perth
Group exhibitions
2025 Spring 1883, Caves, Melbourne
2025 The World is all Cut Outs Then, Goolagatup Heathcote, Perth
2025 Boxwood, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2025 Fleece, 138 Gallery, Melbourne
2024 Yara Away, Mada Gallery, Melbourne
2024 A Tide is a Long Wave, Syrup Contemporary, Sydney
2021 Majlis Traveling Fellowship Finalist Exhibition, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Images for Cognition with Hugo Blomley as NWEB, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Let me sit in the corner I’ve just turned zero, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne
2019 ?A platform used for creative expression over individual projection? – D&M Gallery as part of the NWEB summer residency in Warrnambool, Victoria
2018 _______Garden, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Donnelly River Residencies, Early Works Gallery, Perth
2016 25 Under 25, Moore Contemporary Art, Fremantle
Awards
2024 RTP Scholarship Monash Masters
2023 Daniel Dorall Prize for Highest Mark in Studio Project, Monash Honours
2019 New Colombo Plan Beijing Mobility Scholarship, Victorian College of the Arts