Rich with illusion, depth, and space, the Chicago native’s latest works portray hybrid identities—often his own mixed with loved ones—as if built from scrap materials. “Many of these images are of the family I’ve built throughout my life,” says Klos. “Being raised with very little family, I’ve learned that ‘family’ members are the people who we survive with and for.” Created while quarantining in Los Angeles, the works employ a singular paper construction process in which Klos carves into blocks of wood, inks and prints the relief surface onto archival papers, and collages the source material in several layers to create fractured planes. Chicago’s urban planning for racial segregation through grids and axonometric block forms are woven throughout: Heads fall from and break through grids of wood planks and bricks as if being born from—or negotiating their existence within—these construction materials of urban detritus. 

Your Strength Is In Your Shadow (2021) by Yashua Klos. Image courtesy of UTA Artist Space