Yashua Klos
Yashua Klos (born 1977) is a multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Working closely with printmaking and collage techniques, Klos bases his practice around ideas of identity, memory, and community.[1] In the past, Klos taught foundational studio courses at Hunter College. He now works with pre-college students at Parson's and is represented by Tilton Gallery (New York) and Galerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris).[2]
Early life and education
Klos was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up on Chicago's South Side and was raised by his single mother.[1] In 2000, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University.[3] Klos then studied abroad in France, where he investigated Renaissance painting techniques at L'Atelier Neo Medici in 2002. By 2009, he earned a Masters of Fine Arts at Hunter College.[4]
Art
Themes and Ideas
Klos is largely influenced by his childhood environment in Chicago, and bases his works around identity in contemporary African-American society. Inspired by his own memories of the past, Klos discusses ideas of marginalization, masculinity, and urban mythology through large scale pieces. He paints portraits of blackness extracted directly from the neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, highlighting notions of suppression, denial, and pain associated with the vulnerability experienced in black communities. There was a "stoicism" among the "black folks" Klos witnessed, an element he attempts to unpack by studying the behavioral nature of adapting and thriving. Overall, he challenges conventions often attached to the African-American man.
Technique
Printmaking
In his earlier works, Klos was known for printing giant woodcuts on large stretches of muslin. His interest in the technique grew out of the many African-American activists who employed it during the mid 20th century, such as Charles white, Elizabeth, Catlett, and Emily Douglas. By cutting and etching using a series of erratic, jagged marks, he imitates this "kinetic devotion to image-making" that grounds this element of humanity he desires to achieve.
Collage
Klos' collages derive from his practice as a printmaker. Using a personalized approach, he creates swatches and samples of textures by hand-carving and inking woodblock prints to create a library of source material. By piecing and arranging a selection of patterns, they are layered on top of a pencil blueprint to create a complete image. His ideas of memory and distortion are demonstrated by the manifestation of fractured impressions and angled perspectives.[5] Klos views collage as more than just a technique, but more a "metaphor for the fragmentation of African-American identity".
Sculpture
Klos references earthly materials, physical mediums he views as strong yet vulnerable over the passage of time. He associates timelessness to ancient monuments, an concept he applies to his sculptures to communicate the j"monumentality of a culture's identity and relationship to time". Often, he incorporates materials leftover from urban renewal, such as milk crates, bricks, and wooden beams. The use of these mediums suggest Klos' desire to construct an identity relevant to his background.[6]
Select Past Works
Selected exhibitions
Solo exhibitions:
2013
February: Jack Tilton Gallery, “We Come Undone”, New York NY
2015
September: Jack Tilton Gallery, “As Below, So Above”, New York NY
2016
September: Galerie Anne DeVillepoix, "Blank Black", Paris FR
Group exhibitions:
2006
February: The Abrons Art Center, “Inner Visions”, New York NY
September: Deitch Projects, “Deitch Art Parade”, New York NY
2008
February: Rush Arts Gallery, “Garveyism”, New York NY
August: Port Authority Bus Terminal, “The Mt. Rushmore Drawings”, New York NY
2009
January: Museum of Science and Industry, “Black Creativity 09”, Chicago IL
June: Hunterdon Museum of Art, “Up and Coming”, Clinton NJ[7]
2010
July: Scaramouche Gallery, “Lush Life”, New York NY
September: Tilton Gallery, “ELSE”, New York NY
October: Catskill Art Society, “Utopia and Wallpaper”, Livingston Manor NY
2011
June: Kravetz Wehby, “Paperwork”, New York NY
2012
October: Memphis College of Art, “Singular Masses”, Memphis TN
Weatherspoon Museum, “Art on Paper”, Greensboro NC
November: Studio Museum in Harlem, “Fore”, New York NY
Dodge Gallery, “Bigger Than Shadows”, New York NY
2014
February: Carnegie Mellon University, Draw 2014 Symposium, Pittsburgh PA
November: Opa Locka ARC, In Plain Sight, Opa-Locka FL
Awards
Scholarships
Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2014
NYFA Grant, 2015
Residencies
The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 2005
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
The Vermont Studio Center
References
- ^ a b "Yashua Klos". Artspace. Phaidon Global. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "A Conversation With Yashua Klos on Violence, Police, and Art". Blouin Artinfo. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "Yashua Klos Biography" (PDF). Tilton Gallery. Jack Tilton Gallery. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "Yashua Klos". ArtSlant. ArtSlant Inc. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Brock, Polly. "Stoicism and Survival: Interview with Yashua Klos". Art/ctualité. Art/ctualité. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "As Above, So Below". Newfound. Newfound. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Genocchio, Benjamin. "By Invitation Only". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 21 March 2018.