Yashua Klos’s “Study of a Blue Rose” contrasts the experience of suppression with a response that evokes adaptation and endurance.
He states, “As a teenager, I had a brutal conflict with the police which led me toward a pivotal self-portrait at the time. I recognized then how my own trauma was made physical - depicting myself battered, yet defiant. Today, we are hyper aware of the daily systematic threats to Black life, yet Blackness insists upon survival and beauty in defiance to these threats.”
Yashua Klos
A Study of a Blue Rose
2019
Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival paper
68 x 45 inches (framed)
Courtesy of the Nieves Collection
Klos' practice employs a process of collaging woodblock prints to engage ideas about Blackness both as a ‘construct’, and as an identity in flux. He depicts Blackness as an adaptive material - fragmenting, constructing, and deconstructing as strategies for survival.
Yashua Klos working on A Study of a Blue Rose
Yashua Klos is a visual artist who employs a unique process of collaging his own woodblock printed textures to engage ideas about Blackness as an adaptive material for survival strategies. Klos’ work have been shown in museums and galleries across the states and internationally, including the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, and What If The World in Johannesburg, South Africa. Klos’ works have been reviewed in the NY Times, and he’s been awarded residencies at Skowhegan, The Vermont Studio Center, and Bemis. He is the recipient of a 2014 Joan Mitchell Fellowship and a 2015 NYFA grant. Klos is represented by Tilton Gallery in New York and Galerie Anne De Villepoix in Paris. Klos was born in Chicago, Illinois, and now works from Brooklyn, New York.
Learn more at:
www.yashuaklos.net
