About
Clara Ostend — painter, born 1991, working in Copenhagen since 2018.
Clara Ostend
“I am not interested in what a room looks like. I am interested in what it looks like when nobody is arranging it.”
Born 1991 in Odense. Studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 2017, and has worked from a studio on Refshaleøen since 2018. Represented by Galleri Nordhavn in Copenhagen.
The work is entirely observational and almost entirely interior. Two ongoing series — Interiors, begun in 2029, and Refshaleøen, begun during a winter of walking to the studio along the water. Paintings take between four and nine months and are worked in thin layers with a great deal of scraping back.
Shortlisted for the Nordic Painting Award in 2032. Held a winter residency at Fogo Island Arts in 2031, which is where the harbour paintings started, though nothing made there has been exhibited.
How the studio works
Three things worth knowing before writing.
Direct prices match gallery prices
Buying from the studio is never cheaper than buying through Galleri Nordhavn. Undercutting the people who have shown the work for years would be a poor way to behave.
One or two commissions a year
Always interiors, always from observation, which means access to the room over several months. Most requests are declined and it is not personal.
No prints, no reproductions
The paintings depend on surface and thickness. A print is a photograph of a texture, and it is not the same object.
Enquiries
Two routes, depending on what you need.
Studio
Available works, visits, commissions
Galleri Nordhavn
Exhibited works, press, institutional
Studio visits on Thursdays and Fridays
By arrangement. Refshaleøen, and genuinely cold in January.
Write to the studio