Lisson Gallery now represents Josh Kline- Lisson Gallery has announced representation of New York-based artist, Josh Kline, across America and China.
Kline will first exhibit with Lisson Gallery at Art Basel in June 2024, followed by his inaugural show at the New York gallery in September 2024. Born in Philadelphia, Kline is described as one of the leading artists of his generation, best known for creating immersive installations using video, sculpture, and photography to question how emergent technologies are changing human life in the twenty-first century. The announcement precedes the artist’s forthcoming solo presentation, Climate Change, opening at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, on June 23rd, 2024.
Kline’s work is also currently on view in both the 24th Biennale of Sydney (9th March – 10th June 2024) and the 8th Yokohama Triennale (15th March – 9th June 2024). Lisson Gallery will represent Kline in collaboration with 47 Canal in New York and Modern Art in London.
Kline’s diverse oeuvre is centred on the dynamics between work and class, examining how contemporary social and political issues such as climate change, automation, and the fragility of democracy affect the labor force. Kline often utilizes the technologies, practices and forms that he scrutinizes – including digitization, data collection, image manipulation, 3D-printing, commercial and political advertising, productivity-enhancing substances – aiming them back at themselves. Some of his most well-known videos use early deepfake software to speculate on the meaning of truth in a time of post-truth propaganda.
Over the past decade, Kline has developed a multi-part cycle of installations dissecting different facets of 21st-century existence. The fourth and largest chapter in the cycle, Climate Change (2019-24), includes a 16mm film titled Adaptation (2019-22) alongside a set of science-fiction video sculptures depicting the repercussions of climate change on essential workers in the 2050s, while also delving into the societal ramifications such as mass displacement and class dynamics. The third chapter, Civil War (2017), envisions the 2030s as a period marked by the severe dismantling of America’s middle class, symbolized through sculptures portraying the ruins of their homes and belongings. Kline presents this particular work alongside a film offering a utopian alternative. Also set in the 2030s, Kline’s second
chapter, Unemployment (2016), creates haunting portraits of office workers facing redundancy due to automation, showcased notably in the Contagious Unemployment (2016) sculptures where plastic virus forms encapsulate the personal effects of displaced white-collar workers. The initial chapter, Freedom (2015) harnesses emerging technologies like deepfake (or face swapping), 3D scanning and printing techniques to critique inequalities and political frustrations that catalyzed movements such as Occupy Wall Street in 2011. This comprehensive exploration of societal themes culminated in the midcareer survey exhibition, Project for a New American Century, at The Whitney Museum of Art in 2023, offering a significant reflection on contemporary existence and societal trajectories.
Earlier, prominent bodies of works include Creative Labor (2009–14) which explores how artists navigate branding and marketing themselves amid the rise of smartphones and social media – as well as the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis – highlighting shifts in the creative industries. Prior to exhibitions at The Whitney, Kline first gained major recognition with his 2011 solo exhibition, Dignity and Self-Respect, at 47 Canal, New Pictures of Common Objects in 2012 at MoMA PS1 and in 2014 when his work, Skittles was showcased on the High Line in Manhattan, New York. In 2015, Kline’s installation Freedom, was a highlight of the New Museum Triennial and the subject of an exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, earning widespread acclaim; and in 2020, mounted his first survey exhibition Antibodies at the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo.
The artist has been widely exhibited at institutions in the United States and internationally, including The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, MoMA PS1, The Fridericianum, The Hirschhorn Museum, and The National Portrait Gallery. His work is held in the collections of museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim, The Whitney Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
About the artist
Josh Kline (b. 1979, Philadelphia, USA) works in installation, video, sculpture, and photography. His work questions how emerging technologies are being used to change human life in the 21st Century. He often utilizes the technologies, practices, and forms he scrutinizes—digitization, data collection, image manipulation, 3D-printing, commercial and political advertising, productivity-enhancing substances—aiming them back at themselves. Some of his most well-known videos use early deepfake software to speculate on the meaning of truth in a time of post-truth propaganda. At its core, Kline’s prescient practice is focused on work and class, exploring how today’s most urgent social and political issues—climate change, automation, disease, and the weakening of democracy—impact the people who make up the labor force.
In 2023 his work was the subject of a major survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York. This year he is included in the 24th Biennale of Sydney and the 8th Yokohama Triennial and will have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Kline’s art has been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally, in exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and MoMA PS1 in New York; The Hirschhorn Museum and The National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; ICA Boston; ICA Philadelphia; MOCA Cleveland; Yerba BuenaCenter for the Arts, San Francisco; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; KW, Berlin; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Modern ArtOxford, UK; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Louisiana Museum, Denmark; and MCAD Manila, Philippines, among many others.
His work has been written about in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Artforum, Art in America, and Frieze, among many others. Kline’s works are included in the collections of major museums including those of The Museum of Modern Art; The Guggenheim; The Whitney Museum; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
