Claudia Mattos Avolese

Claudia Mattos Avolese is an Associate Teaching Professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where she has taught courses such as 'Antropofagia: Decolonizing Strategies in the Arts of Brazil' and 'Imagining the Amazon: Art and Activism' since 2021. She previously served as Senior Lecturer (2021-2024) and Lecturer (2021) at Tufts and as a professor at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil from 2003 to 2019. Her work focuses on decolonizing art history through transnational perspectives, particularly in Brazilian and indigenous visual culture.

• PhD in Art History from Freie Universität Berlin
• MA from University of São Paulo
• BA in Psychology from Catholic University of São Paulo

Her research spans visual culture in Brazil, indigenous art, 19th-century global exchanges, and ecology in art. She has explored topics like German-Brazilian artistic connections, the history of art historiography (Winckelmann, Aby Warburg), and scientific expeditions to Brazil. Recent work examines decolonial frameworks like Brazilian Antropofagia and the role of forests in artistic imaginary.

Dr. Mattos Avolese collaborates internationally with institutions like the Getty Foundation and the Clark Art Institute, organizing initiatives such as the 'Art Worlds of Brazil' lecture series during the pandemic. She co-organized the 2023 exhibition Véxoa: We Know with Indigenous curator Naine Terena and a 2024 workshop on Indigenous curatorship funded by the Terra Foundation. She currently serves as president of the International Art Historical Committee (CIHA).