Clarissa Tossin works with moving-image, sculpture, and installation to propose alternative narratives for places defined by histories of colonization. Through a mix of research, storytelling, and gestures of mapping and layering, Tossin places seemingly disparate elements into conversation, generating unexpected moments of interconnectedness across time and space. Her childhood in Brasília heavily influenced early films and installations deconstructing Brazil’s modernist history, which over the years have expanded to encompass geographies ranging from her adopted home of Los Angeles to the vast realms of outer space.
Tossin received a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in 2000 and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2009. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; MCA Denver, CO; and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France. Select biennials and group exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial 2024; 14th Shanghai Biennial; 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial; Born in Flames: Feminist Futures, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (2021); 12th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; Made in L.A. 2014, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Tossin is the recipient of grants and fellowships from Smithsonian (2023); Graham Foundation (2020), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019), Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship (2017-18), among others.
