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White abstract shapes resembling clouds, geometric forms, and a mushroom or arrowhead are arranged on a light blue background in a minimalist, surreal composition.

Tony Clark: Unsculpted

When

This exhibition has now ended.

Location

Buxton Contemporary Corner Southbank Boulevard & Dodds Street, Southbank. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne

Unsculpted presented a multifaceted overview of one of Australia’s most respected artists. For over four decades, Tony Clark explores 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 was developed in collaboration with the artist and focused on his sustained interest in the representation of sculpture and sculptural relief through painted form.

The exhibition included 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 transported 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.

Exhibition catalogue

A pink book cover featuring small black illustrations of abstract sculptural forms, with black text reading Tony Clark unsculpted.

Tony Clark

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.

Contributors: Stephen Bram, Kevin Flanagan, Michael Graf, Magdalene Keaney, Shelley Lasica, Gabrielle Martin, Chris McAuliffe, Robyn McKenzie, Virginia Rigney, Joanne Ritson, Ulrike Stottrop, Rafael von Uslar and Lyndal Walker.

Editor: Jacqueline Doughty

Available for purchase at Buxton Contemporary, with postal delivery available. For purchase enquiries contact Buxton Contemporary.

$45, student discount 50%

Read more

Hear from the artist

Gallery

A gallery wall displays seven monochrome artworks featuring abstract and stylized portraits, circular patterns, and textured elements, each in shades of black, white, and gray, with a polished concrete floor below.
Colourful painted wooden columns of various heights are displayed on white platforms, with tall, vertically striped and patterned wall art in the background, creating a vibrant, abstract art installation in a gallery space.
Four paintings of blue classical-style statues on pinkish backgrounds are displayed on a white gallery wall above a concrete floor. The artworks vary in size and depict different poses of standing and seated figures.
A white abstract sculpture on a pedestal stands in front of a large blue and cream artwork featuring cartoon-like cloud, smoke, and burst shapes, displayed in a modern, well-lit gallery space.

  1. Banner Image:

    Tony Clark, Jasperware (Landscape), 1993, Michael Buxton Collection, the University of Melbourne Art Collection. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Michael and Janet Buxton, 2018