Klone (7)

Klone, b. 1983 in Harkov, Ukraine, currently lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel. Influenced by his childhood emigration from the Ukraine to Israel, Klone’s initial practice of tagging and graffiti were personal challenges to themes of diaspora. This urban tradition allowed him to take ownership of his surrounding and localize an often hostile and alienating environment, making his foreign settings, more familiar. As his works expanded to exhibitions and murals throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, Klone began to integrate more complex traditions of art history and aimed to reach a broader political treatise by moving the intention of his work outside of himself and towards others and their relationships with—and concept of “home.” Using characters, symbols, and regional iconography Klone’s work borrows from existing linguistic traditions in hope of providing a bridge to communicate. This organic approach appeals in its attempt at universality without erasure, without requiring a blank slate mentality. Each installation and drawing, attempts to create an environment that will connect with the observers primal feeling, placing him or her as part of the setting and context of the work. As well, Klone’s works, whether created inside the studio or in in the public sphere, speaks to the exploration of what combinations are available to us with and also outside of a given discourse of belonging.