Understated yet unrestrained, the work of Zürich-based illustrator Adelina Lahr invites viewers in to discover the little details and the wordless narrative of the moment she has captured. “Through drawing, I was able to express things without words or show funny or beautiful moments I had observed or imagined,” she explains. “I’m good at observing and listening to people and at sensing what is important or interesting.” It’s a skill that she has honed from childhood as she attended an art-focused high school in Zürich and later the Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art, majoring in illustration fiction. During a semester abroad at the Kingston School of Art in London, she began working on animations through its combined program. After graduating in 2024, Lahr attended an artist residency at Valencia Print Workshop in Valencia, Spain, where she illustrated and screen printed a book on Virgen de los Desamparados, the patroness of Valencia, that drew inspiration from her new surroundings. “Being in a new place surrounded by a different language, taking trips to the sea and discovering new food are always very motivating,” she says. “I try to capture interesting observations and encounters in my sketchbook, and looking through my sketchbooks takes me back to the places where I made those drawings.” Inspired by artist Dominique Goblet’s experimental comics and the larger comic scene, Lahr has recently begun creating visual essays, an avant-garde form of narrative for which she takes a mixed-media approach to explore current sociopolitical issues. “Psychology and interpersonal themes are also central interests of mine,” she says. “Much of what I create revolves around people: how they feel, relate to one another, and navigate their inner and outer worlds. I believe illustration has a unique power to express emotions and situations that words alone can’t fully capture.”