Jite Agbro
In Forms It Never Takes , 34 x 23 in, 2020, Paper, ink, fabric, thread
“I try to approach and incorporate color with boldness and a healthy inclination to experiment with layering color and texture.”
Jite Agbro is an artist living and working in Seattle/Ballard, Washington (USA). Her approach to color involves saturation and her approach to printmaking involves layers.
Jite’s colorful, form and pattern-oriented work is created with collagraph, monotype, stamping and photo etching techniques. Currently she is working on colorful and large-scale pieces that are site-specific.
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
The main references are the patterns and colors from West African printed fabric like kitenge and ankara. I get lots of inspiration from beadwork and other types of status markers; jewelry, headdresses, face paint, etc.
I draw inspiration from contemporary artists like; Berkly L Hendricks, Eddy Kamuanga, Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Bisa Butler. They inspire me through the way they employ color, which is almost counter-intuitive but, it works. I try to approach and incorporate color with a similar boldness and a healthy inclination to experiment with layering color and texture.
What cultural aspects of color are built into your work?
Vibrant aspirational colors that are shared along the shores of west Africa as well as black neighborhoods in U.S. cities.
Watched And Seen, 38 x 23.5 in, 2020, Paper, ink, fabric, thread
Grace In Defeat, 34 x 23.5 in, 2020, Paper, ink, fabric, thread
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
Technical skill and intuitive thinking are interwoven, every technical action requires intuitive decision making.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
I build layers of color by printing repeated printing on the same pieces of paper and fabric using transparent hues. It's the layering of hues through the printmaking process that gives a piece more cohesiveness and depth.
Printmaking ink is heavenly saturated and and transparent without being watery. This allows me to layer colors and create rich deep finishes that I have not been able to accomplish with any other medium.
In many ways your work speaks for itself. Is there anything else you’d like to describe about your imagery?
The imagery in my work is mostly figurative, with lots of movement and character, but the figures typically don't have facial features. Strong reactions to the work are provoked by a combination of color, texture, and gesture. Depending on the blend of colors and textures, a figure can be perceived as threatening, inviting, or ambivalent. Of course, any individual reaction to the imagery in my work will be colored by the viewer's cultural context, biases, assumptions, etc. I like that that the faceless images employ the viewer to confront their own beliefs.
Midas, 45 x 23 in, 2020, Paper, ink, fabric, thread
Hero Midas, 36 x 23 in, 2020, Paper, ink, fabric, thread
If you could eat a color for dinner, what would you choose and how would it taste?
A soft violet purple I image would taste like a light spring wine.