About the Artist

Josh Kline (b. 1979, Philadelphia, USA) works in installation, video, sculpture, and photography. His work questions how emergent 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 deep fake 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 Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; KW, Berlin; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Modern Art Oxford, 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.

School of Art Lecture Series

The Carnegie Mellon School of Art Lecture Series is made possible in part by Elizabeth (Thompson) and Thomas M. Cox (A’29) Distinguished Artists Funds, Robert L. Lepper Distinguished Lecture in Creative Inquiry, and Orville M. Winsand Lecture for Critical Studies. Carnegie Mellon makes every effort to provide accessible facilities and programs for individuals with disabilities. This publication can be made available in an alternate format upon request. For accommodations, contact the School of Art at schoolofart@cmu.edu or 412.268.2409. Lecture and event details are subject to change or cancellation.

Image: Josh Kline, Unemployment, 2016, installation, dimensions variable. Exhibition View at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, 2016. Photograph by Paolo Saglia. Courtesy the artist and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.