BIOGRAPHY
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. Tossin’s 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 an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo. Her work was recently featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial: Even Better Than the Real Thing.
COURSES TAUGHT
During fall quarter 2024, Tossin taught the undergraduate course, ART190, and the graduate seminar, ART 290D. ART 190 emphasized the development of students' visual literacy skills through group discussions, critiques, and readings and sought to prepare students to pursue professional opportunities such as artist residencies, internships, employment, and graduate school applications. On October 7, 2024, Tossin presented her video work, Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, in a special public screening.
PUBLIC LECTURE
A recording of Clarissa Tossin's public lecture is available to UC Davis community members via this Kerberos-password protected link [click here].
Banner photo: Still from Clarissa Tossin, Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, 2022, color digital video, sound. Image courtesy of the artist and EMPAC / Rensselaer.