Tossoonian’s sculpture reflects his optimistic vision and his fascination with the Greco-Roman civilization which Alexandria was steeped in during antiquity. The malleable properties of bronze is favoured by Tossoonian as it is amenable to a free-handed sculpting process which allows him to highlight details.
Sarkis Tossoonian was born in Alexandria in 1953. He graduated from its Faculty of Fine Arts and Sculpture in 1979 and since 1980 has exhibited in individual and group exhibitions in Alexandria and Cairo, with many of his works featuring in collective exhibitions abroad. He has been a mainstay resident artist with Safarkhan since 2008, and among his accolades is the second prize in sculpture which he won at the 5th Biennale of Port Said in 2001, later capturing the first prize at the 7th edition in 2005. A member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Plastic Arts and of Alexandria Atelier, he has participated in over 150 local exhibitions across Egypt, as well as international exhibitions in Cyprus (1996), Italy (2003), Japan (2004), Sudan (2005), Romania (2006), France (2008) and Yemen (2010). Private and public acquisitions of his works include; Cairo’s Horreya Garden and the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, Aswan International Open-Air Sculpture Museum, Bibliotheca Alexandria, and numerous private acquisitions abroad including Cyprus, Canada and beyond.
Tossoonian excels in blending different mediums in his works, namely matte bronze with burnished golden brass. His figures, both male and female, are usually garbed elegantly and with a distinguished poise, representing mostly noble and graceful figures, whether spiritual or temporal. Although he is primarily a skilled metallurgist, Tossoonian has also sculpted using materials like granite and stone. Tossoonian uses the power of contrasting elements in his sculpture to accentuate their physique and form by polishing the different parts of the sculpture’s external façade. He accomplishes this utlizing his characteristic burnished bronze, which allows the artist to manipulate the proportions of light and shadow as they impact his works.
Tossoonian’s sculpture reflects his optimistic vision and his fascination with the Greco-Roman civilization which Alexandria was steeped in during antiquity. The malleable properties of bronze is favoured by Tossoonian as it is amenable to a free-handed sculpting process which allows him to highlight details. Working with more rigid materials like granite, he prefers to carve more austere forms, modest in their compositional facets. Tossoonian has demonstrated a predilection for producing figurative sculptures because it is the best form that most accurately expresses his overarching artistic obsession, one that is preoccupied with converging and extrapolating the linkages between the past and the present.