Overview

February 12 – June 12, 2022

Curated by Tracy L. Adler, Johnson-Pote Director

Through his print-based collages and sculptures, Yashua Klos explores the intersections among the human form, natural elements, the built environment, and social hierarchies. His practice employs a process of collaging woodblock prints to engage ideas about Blackness and maleness as identities that are both fragmented and constructed. His recent work takes on personal histories of race, identity, and familial ties. For the exhibition Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR, curated by Johnson-Pote Director Tracy L. Adler, the artist is creating an entirely new body of site-responsive collages and sculptures, and collaborating with Hamilton College students on a large-scale, collage-based wall installation to debut at the Wellin Museum.

The artist notes, “I have been exploring identity as a compilation of various influences, as our identities are never sourced from a singular place. We are built from our hopes, the materials of our environment, our gene pool, and the mythologies we adapt.”

Yashua Klos (b. 1977, Chicago, Illinois; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) received a BFA from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb in 2000 and an MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York, in 2009, both in Fine Art. He has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Weatherspoon Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Tilton Gallery, New York; and Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France. His works are included in the Pizzuti Collection, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Wellin Museum of Art’s permanent collection. He has been awarded residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, BRIC Arts, the Joan Mitchell Center, Skowhegan, and the Vermont Studio Center. He is the recipient of a 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant and a 2015 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship.

Past Exhibition-Related Events:

Friday, February 11
12:00 – 1:00pm | Virtual Tour of the Exhibition
Online Event
Yashua Klos will lead a virtual preview of the exhibition in dialogue with Johnson-Pote Director Tracy L. Adler on Facebook Live. 

Saturday, February 12
2:00 – 5:00pm | Opening Celebration
Wellin Museum
Join us for a celebration with the Wellin Museum and artist Yashua Klos.

Monday, March 7
4:30pm | Gallery Walkthrough with Exhibiting Artist Yashua Klos
Wellin Museum
This in-person tour will feature Yashua Klos and Johnson-Pote Director Tracy L. Adler discussing the artworks on view and sharing insights into the collaborative process of developing the exhibition Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR.

Thursday, March 10
4:30pm | Roehrick Lecture: Yashua Klos
Kirner-Johnson Building, Bradford Auditorium
This in-person lecture and discussion led by exhibiting artist Yashua Klos will address his artistic practice and the exhibition OUR LABOUR on view at the Wellin.

Tuesday, March 29
7:00pm | Artists in Conversation: Yashua Klos and LeRonn Brooks
Online Event
For this virtual conversation, LeRonn Brooks, Associate Curator for Modern and Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute, and artist Yashua Klos will explore topics related to the exhibition Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR, including issues of identity, labor, and the power of visual art.