Represent - Shelley Lasica and Tony Clark - 4 March 2025

Join us for a performance of Represent, the latest iteration of a long-running collaboration between artist Tony Clark and choreographer and performer Shelley Lasica. On 4 March, the performance happens with choreographic and painted work developed especially for each iteration. In Represent both Clark and Lasica continue to work with not only the imagery of the Portland Vase, but the idea of the historical context and of the object itself – an ancient Roman artefact, popularised by the porcelain company Wedgwood, an ongoing reference point for Clark. Through their ongoing interests in representation, Represent collides the worlds of painting, sculpture, choreography at Buxton Contemporary.

This is a free event, all are welcome. 

Painting assistants for this iteration of Represent: Anthea Kemp, Christopher Theofanous and Genevieve Elliott.

About Shelley Lasica:

Shelley Lasica is based in Naarm/Melbourne and has been working nationally and internationally for over four decades. Her practice has consistently engaged with the contexts and situations of presenting dance, choreography and performance. Interested in the collective and interdisciplinary possibilities of choreography, she performs her solo and ensemble works in dialogue with designers, writers and visual artists. 

Lasica’s choreographic works have been shown within visual art, theatre and festival contexts. These include the Melbourne Festival; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Chunky Move, Melbourne; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; Artspace, Sydney; Centre nationale de la danse, Paris; Siobhan Davies Studios, London; Dance Massive, Melbourne; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. 

About Tony Clark:

Tony Clark was born in 1954 in Canberra and grew up in London and Rome. He emerged as an artist in Melbourne in the early 1980s, where he was a pivotal figure in the experimental art and post-punk music scenes, and became known for his distinctive approach to painting. In a career spanning over five decades, Tony Clark has exhibited extensively, nationally and internationally. His first exhibition was with Art Projects Melbourne in 1982. In 1992, he represented Australia in Documenta IX, the prestigious contemporary art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany. In 1998, a major retrospective of his work, Tony Clark: Public and Private Paintings 1982–1998, was held at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. In 1994 Clark won the $30,000 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize. He has recently produced a series of large scale, site-specific paintings in conjunction with performances by Shelley Lasica in Sicily, Germany and Australia. His work is included in numerous public collections in Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; QAGOMA, Brisbane and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.