He initiated his trajectory as an artist in the early 60’s, with the appropriation of objects, images taken from newspapers, comics and photos associated with social issues through symbolic connotations. In the 70’s he created a new syntax through the construction of a thread of reticules and chromatic granulations that led to structures and spaces full of intense symbolic meanings. It is a rational and mental process rather than an emotional and expressive one, in which the essence is the concept, the structure and the construction of the space of the painting.

 

From the 80’s until his more recent works, he intensified his formal concerns and started to work with basic structural elements: Lines, planes, colors and organic forms, materials that create formal analogies with pre-existing images and enlarge their constructive characteristics.

 

In his methodic and objective processes Claudio Tozzi uses visual icons -- screws, stairs, fragments of objects, tropical symbols, urban spaces, etc -- and deconstructs them using only their essential aspects. He is an artist of strict formal rigor whose work includes constructive and conceptual approaches.

 

Born in São Paulo city where he lives and works. He studied in the Colégio de Aplicação da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo (1956 / 1962) and in the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (1964 / 1969), where he works as a professor.

 

He participated in several group exhibitions, among which: Jovem Arte Contemporânea at the Universidade de São Paulo Contemporary Art Museum; Brazil 500 years - Contemporary Art; Brasilian artists and mass iconography-ESDI/Rio; Culture in Belém; Tradition and  Rupture; Ship of senseless people-MACUSP; Art and Memory: the years of rebellion-MUFRGS/Porto Alegre; Marginalia 70 (Marginals of the 70´s): the Super 8  (short films) in Brazilian Experimentalism; Thirty years after 68 and Brazilians at CCBC; Between scenes: 1964/68-MACUSP; Art Today-MAM/Rio; The Price of Seduction, Art & Society and Subversion of Media at the Itaú Cultural Center and the São Paulo; The World Goes Pop at theTate Modern (Londres); International Pop at the Walker Art Center, Dallas Museum of Art and  Philadelphia Museum of Art; São Paulo, Venice, Paris, Medelín (Colombia ), Havana, Makurazaki (Japan) and Mercosul Biennials.

 

He showed his works in solo exhibitions at the Casa Brasileira Museum in São Paulo, Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Museum Andrade Muricy in Curitiba, Museum of Modern Art in Cascavel, Museum of Modern Art in Londrina and in several art galleries both in Brazil and abroad: Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Cecilia Brunson Projects and Gary Nader Art Centre. He obtained his PHD with an exhibition-thesis that took place at the Brazilian Sculpture Museum. The PHD title was obtained from the Architecture and Urbanism College (São Paulo University).

 

The artist was awarded many prizes abroad, among which a trip abroad from the Salão Nacional, Press Prize Awards 2016 - Plastic Arts Miami  Fort Landerdale, Prize Trajectory 2016 by the  Brazilian Association of Art Critics. His drawing for a 600 m2 sized panel was chosen in a contest for a building in Av. Angélica, in São Paulo and a chapel in the campus of the FIEO.

 

He has drawn panels for public spaces, as the Zebra in the Praça da República, in the Praça da Sé and Barra Funda subway stations, building 2222 at the Av. Doutor Arnaldo, for the Labor Courts in the Barra Funda neighborhood, in the Faculty of Law of USP-Ribeirão Preto, USP campus-East Zone, in the Convention Centre-USP, in PNUD(UNESCO) in Brasilia and in a huge area in the Avenues 23 de Maio and Bandeirantes. All these works were made in the city of São Paulo.

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