TONY CLARK: UNSCULPTED

1 NOVEMBER 2024 – 1 JUNE 2025

Unsculpted presents a multifaceted overview of one of Australia’s most respected artists. For over four decades, Tony Clark has explored the capacity of painting to test the boundaries between genres and creative disciplines.   

Clark’s paintings reinterpret motifs from the histories of art, architecture and the decorative arts in ongoing bodies of work that repeat and reconfigure familiar themes, building an iterative visual language that is distinctively his own.

Departing from a conventional survey, the exhibition has been developed in collaboration with the artist and focuses on his sustained interest in the representation of sculpture and sculptural relief through painted form.

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The exhibition includes studies from the artist’s archives that reveal early explorations into the interplay between two- and three-dimensional form, alongside new commissions such as a series of sculptures produced in collaboration with fellow artist Joanne Ritson, which transport Clark’s interest in three-dimensional form into new territory.

Tony Clark has described his frequent use of sculptural modelling in painted form as a tripwire strategy that ‘distances the painting from painting’. Through his dedication to painting and consideration of its relationship to sculpture and other creative forms, Clark breaks down distinctions between artistic genres and mediums, unravelling the claims and posturings of painting from within.

Curated by Jacqueline Doughty.

Free Entry

Wednesday – Sunday
11am – 5pm

Hear from the artist

“I’ve always wanted the history of art to feature in some way in the work I was doing…I wanted to foreground it.”

Watch this interview with Tony Clark to hear directly from the artist about the development of Unsculpted and his sustained interest in the representation of sculpture and sculptural relief through painted form.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Exhibition Tours

Exhibition Tours

Friday 1 November 2024 – Sunday 1 June 2025

KEY ARTWORKS

Exhibition Catalogue

Published to accompany his major exhibition, this beautifully illustrated publication spans over forty years of Tony Clark’s practice, with a focus on the representation of sculptural motifs through painted form.

Includes twelve texts by art historians, curators and artists, providing various perspectives on Clark’s work.

Available from Buxton Contemporary or by payment over phone.

ACCESS

Prepare for your visit by downloading our social script, or ask for a copy at the front desk.

Download exhibition room labels or request a printed (or large print) copy from the front desk.

Everything you need to know before your visit to Buxton Contemporary.

Image credit: Tony Clark, Jasperware (Landscape), 1993, acrylic on canvas. The University of Melbourne Art Collection. The Michael and Janet Buxton Collection.