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Yashua KLOS

FEATURED WORKS

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BIOGRAPHY

Yashua Klos approaches the idea of identity as multi-faceted, adaptive, and ever-changing. He explores identity as a composite of self-conception, family histories, environmental influences, and mythologies. In his portraiture and collage work, Klos explores how material and social conditions shape one’s identity and experience of moving through the world. His process employs a unique intervention on the traditional method of woodblock printing: carving, inking, and hand-pressure printing to create his own source material for collaging. He then cuts and arranges these separate printed elements to form exquisitely textured, amalgamated portraits.

Fractured small elements converge to create larger whole images, which are also representational, and often portraits. These figures emerge from a substrate that reference Detroit’s Art Deco and woodblock printing tradition as key elements to Klos’ own familial and artistic identity. This complex materiality echoes the psychological layers of identity that comprise Klos’ subjects. Through his use of scale and reference to construction materials- the artist seems to align the act of Black representational image making to the act of building statues or monuments. Perhaps a sculptor at heart, Klos transforms his two-dimensional collages into three-dimensional illusions, works that are at once flat and appear built out, more like sculptural reliefs. Klos’ constructions lead one into an imaginary landscape, at once ancient and futuristic, classic and sci-fi, where identity is both in question and shockingly evident.

Yashua Klos was born in 1977 in Chicago, Illinois and lives in Harlem and works in the Bronx. He 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 has been shown in museums and galleries across the states and internationally, including the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, What If The World in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tilton Gallery in New York City, UTA Artist Space in LA and The Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN . Klos’ first solo museum show was in 2022 at the Wellin Museum in Clinton NY. 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 Joan Mitchell Fellowship and a NYFA grant. His work is part of the collections of Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, The Seattle Museum of Art, and The Wellin Museum at Hamilton College. Yashua Klos will present his second solo exhibition at Zidoun-Bossuyt Paris in September 2023.

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EXHIBITIONS

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Yashua Klos: Building our Being

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of artist Yashua Klos in Paris.

Exhibition Paris 21 September - 4 November 2023
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Yashua Klos: We Hold The WildFlowers

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of American artist Yashua Klos in Luxembourg.

Exhibition Luxembourg 22 September - 29 October 2022
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GROUP SHOW

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery is pleased to present the inauguration group show of its new Dubai gallery with works by Noel W. Anderson, Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil, Louis Granet, Yashua Klos, YoYo Lander, John Madu, Mustafa Maluka, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Jayson Scott Musson, Eniwaye Oluwaseyi, Jeff Sonhouse, Summer Wheat and Thomas Zitzwitz.

Exhibition Dubai 8 March - 23 April 2022
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SUMMERTIME: Godwin C. Namuyimba, Yashua Klos, John Madu, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Brian Rochefort and Summer Wheat

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery is proud to present new works by Yashua Klos, John Madu, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Godwin Champs Namuyimba, Brian Rochefort and Summer Wheat.

Exhibition Luxembourg 29 May - 7 August 2021

PRESS

The New York Times Piecing Together a Black Identity, and a Whole Black World December 2023
Margaret Renkl
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Sugarcane Magazine Yashua Klos: ‘Building’ Identity and Artistry in the Heart of Paris September 2023
Elaine Gonzalez
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Paris Underground Radio City of Muses : Yashua Klos October 2023
Jennifer Geraghty
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ARTENSION «Le défi, face à des galeries devenues quasi des multinationales, est de grandir avec nos artistes.» September 2023
Laurence D'Ist
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BOMB Essential Focus : Yashua Klos Interviewed by Billy Anani 23 May 2022
Billy Anani
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The New York Times A DNA Test Led Yashua Klos to New Connections and New Art May 2022
Seph Rodney
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OBSERVER-DISPATCH Labor of Love: Family connection fueled art exhibition at Hamilton College museum May 2022
Steve Howe
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The Brooklyn Rail Yashua Klos: Our Labour April 2022
Jillian Russo
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Whitewall Magazine Favorites from Untitled Art Miami Beach 2021 December 4, 2021
Eliza Jordan
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Cerebral Women A Conversation With Yashua Klos, episode 109 2022
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Artsy editorial The 10 Best Booths at Untitled Art Miami Beach 2021 November 30, 2021
Salomé Gómez-Upegui
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Culture Type Latest News In Black Art August 8, 2021
Victoria L. Valentine
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PUBLICATIONS

pub1 Yashua Klos – We Hold The WildFlowers

Catalogue of Yashua Klos' exhibition We Hold The WildFlowers at Zidoun-Bossuyt Luxembourg.

October 2022

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Institutional

MFAH | YoYo Lander and Yashua Klos

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Publications

Exhibition Catalogue I Yashua Klos – We Hold The WildFlowers at Zidoun-Bossuyt Luxembourg

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Artfairs

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery at Art Brussels 2022 I 28 April – 1 May 2022

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Artfairs

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery at Art Dubai 2022 I 11 – 13 March 2022

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Institutional

Yashua Klos at Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art Hamilton College I 12 February – 12 June 2022

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Artfairs

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery at Untitled Art Miami Beach 2021 I 29 Nov – 4 Dec, 2021

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Announcements

Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery now represents Yashua Klos I July 2021

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videos

“We Hold The WildFlowers” at Zidoun-Bossuyt Luxembourg
22 September - 29 October 2022, 2022
Inauguration of Zidoun-Bossuyt Dubai
8 March - 23 April 2022, 2022
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