Name: Yashua Klos | Our Living
Start: 2022-05-28T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2022-09-11T23:59:59-04:00
Location: CMCA

Our Living is the first text-based work from the Brooklyn-based artist Yashua Klos. This monumental work expands upon his unique approach to large scale woodblock printing and collage by referencing the technique’s history as illuminated manuscript before the advent of the printing press.

In Our Living, a working collective of hands hold letter forms that are being overgrown with sprawling vines and wildflowers. The work seems to be a public announcement of Black resilience and prosperity being nurtured through communal action. In this sense, Klos also ties woodblock printing into its history as a medium for grass roots political messaging. This installation follows Klos’ first solo museum show, currently on view at the Wellin Museum of Art, entitled, Our Labour, where he highlights the invisible contribution of Black workers in building the American auto industry.

The exhibition also debuts the artist’s video, Memory and the Wind, made in collaboration with the videographer Paul Helzer. Helzer filmed the artist in Los Angeles throughout several days while Klos prepared for his 2021 solo exhibition ‘How We Hold It All Together’ at UTA Artist Space. The video pairs Helzer’s cinematic sensibility with Klos’ voice narration about his artistic inspirations, and his mining of family histories. The video retains the gesture of poetry and collage from Klos’ practice, while resulting in a sort-of visual artist statement.

Yashua Klos has exhibited at venues including UTA Artist Space (Los Angeles), Galerie Anne DeVillepoix (Paris), International Print Center (New York) BRIC (Brooklyn), and the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York) among other venues. He has been an artist in residence at the Joan Mitchell Foundation (New Orleans), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha) and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

This exhibition is made possible through a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as well as support from individual donors and members.