The Surreal Visions of Josephine Tota

Exhibition Website

Jul 15 2018 - Sep 9 2018

Josephine Tota was a first-generation Italian immigrant who spent much of her adult life working as a seamstress in Rochester. In her early seventies, she discovered painting as a means to transform a difficult past into harrowing, self-referential images. Channeling the world around and within her through the legacy of religious art and the language of Surrealism, she produced a decade’s worth of visionary images in the privacy of her home before succumbing to dementia. Fourteen tempera paintings from Memorial Art Gallery’s permanent collection form the core of the exhibition, augmented by approximately 70 from private lenders. A full-color catalog will document Tota’s contribution to the realm of authentic outsider art.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.         

  • Painting
  • International
  • 20th Century
  • Josephine Tota

Exhibition Venues & Dates