Art
His work commonly explores themes surrounding African-American identity in contemporary society. Through his large-scale collages, Klos challenges notions of marginalization, masculinity, and urban mythology. [1] He paints portraits of people from Chicago's South Side, highlighting narratives of suppression, denial, and pain associated with the vulnerability experienced in black communities. There was a "stoicism" among the "black folks" Klos witnessed, an element he attempts to unpack by studying the behavioral nature of adapting and thriving. Overall, he challenges conventions often attached to the African-American man.
Klos teaches at Hunter College and Parsons School of Design in New York City. His work is in museum collections, including at the Studio Museum in Harlem. [3]
Printmaking
In his earlier works, Klos was known for printing giant woodcuts on large stretches of muslin. [10] His interest in the technique grew out of the many African-American activists who employed it during the mid-20th century, such as Charles W. White, Elizabeth Catlett, and Emily Douglas. By cutting and etching using a series of erratic, jagged marks, he imitates this "kinetic devotion to image-making" that grounds this element of humanity he desires to achieve. [11]
Collage
Klos's collages derive from his practice as a printmaker. Using a personalized approach, he creates swatches and samples of textures by hand-carving and inking woodblock prints to create a library of source material. By piecing and arranging a selection of patterns, they are layered on top of a pencil blueprint to create a complete portrait. [12] His ideas of memory and distortion are demonstrated by the manifestation of fractured impressions and angled perspectives. [13] Klos views collage as more than just a technique, but more a "metaphor for the fragmentation of African-American identity". [1]
Sculpture
Klos references earthly materials, physical mediums he views as strong yet vulnerable over the passage of time. He associates timelessness to ancient monuments, a concept he applies to his sculptures to communicate the "monumentality of a culture's identity and relationship to time". Often, he incorporates materials leftover from urban renewal, such as milk crates, bricks, and wooden beams. The use of these mediums suggest Klos' desire to construct an identity relevant to his background. [11]
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