Klos's work is influenced by his childhood growing up on Chicago's South Side. His work commonly explores themes surrounding African-American identity in contemporary society. Through his large scale collages, Klos challenges notions of marginalization, masculinity, and urban mythology. He paints portraits of people from Chicago's South Side, highlighting narratives 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. Klos is represented by Jack Tilton Gallery.
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 portrait. His ideas of memory and distortion are demonstrated by the manifestation of fractured impressions and angled perspectives. 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 "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.
Selected exhibitions
2018 "Go Figure", The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH 2017 "Everyday Anomaly", WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa 2017 "Art on the Vine", presented by The Agora Culture, Edgartown, MA 2017 "Face to Face: Los Angeles Collects Portraiture", California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2017 "Give Us the Vote", ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY 2016 "Black Pulp!", The International Print Center, New York, NY 2016 September: Galerie Anne DeVillepoix, "Blank Black", Paris FR 2016 September: Papillon Art, "Yashua Klos: How to Hide in the Wind", Los Angeles CA 2015 "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black", curated by Hank Willis Thomas, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa 2015 "Broken English", curated by Kim Stern, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK 2015 September: Jack Tilton Gallery, “As Below, So Above”, New York NY 2014 February:Carnegie Mellon University, Draw 2014 Symposium, Pittsburgh PA 2014 November: Opa Locka ARC, In Plain Sight, Opa-Locka FL 2013 March: Jack Tilton Gallery, "We Come Undone", New York NY 2012 October:Memphis College of Art, “Singular Masses”, Memphis TN 2012 Weatherspoon Museum, “Art on Paper”, Greensboro NC 2012 November:Studio Museum in Harlem, “Fore”, New York NY 2012 Dodge Gallery, “Bigger Than Shadows”, New York NY2013 February: Jack Tilton Gallery, “We Come Undone”, New York NY 2011 June: Kravetz Wehby, “Paperwork”, New York NY 2010 July: Scaramouche Gallery, “Lush Life”, New York NY 2010 September: Tilton Gallery, “ELSE”, New York NY 2010 October: Catskill Art Society, “Utopia and Wallpaper”, Livingston Manor NY 2009 January:Museum of Science and Industry, “Black Creativity 09”, Chicago IL 2009 June: Hunterdon Museum of Art, “Up and Coming”, Clinton NJ 2008 February: Rush Arts Gallery, “Garveyism”, New York NY 2008 August:Port Authority Bus Terminal, “The Mt. Rushmore Drawings”, New York NY 2006 February: The Abrons Art Center, “Inner Visions”, New York NY 2006 September: Deitch Projects, “Deitch Art Parade”, New York NY Klos is represented by Tilton Gallery and Galerie Anne de Villepoix.
