JITE AGBRO PENUMBRAS
Jite Agbro in her Seattle studio
JITE AGBRO PENUMBRAS
JULY 1 - 30, 2025
“My encaustic collage work examines the rules that govern our invisible structures. The rules that impede us, or propel us forward, as we navigate social systems. I’m fascinated with how old and oppressive systems endure, replicating through collective practices and rituals. Displaying themselves through status markers or other universal means of conveying selfimage, aesthetic, interpersonal allegiance, citizenship, lineage, and social status Conceptually I’m interested in nonverbal communication, the process of exchanging shared cultural, historical, and familial cues between individuals and groups. I’m interested in the way we define ourselves by projecting our identities in public space, as well as how we interact with others based on what they project on to us.
In things like clothing, gesture, accent, manners, and movement, we hone the “self” we intend to present in the social world. We signal authority or meekness, competence or incompetence through this constant dance. Communicating correctly lies entirely on knowing societal rules. Rules that shift according to context (social class distinction, place and space, political or geopolitical circumstances). I’m keen to explore how we deploy things (symbols, gestures, signifiers) to protect ourselves, preserve our identities, and how these same markers ‘use’ us to perpetuate social hierarchies and protect the systems they are born of.
Penumbra refers to the partial shadow or fringe region around an umbra (a darker, fully shadowed area), like during an eclipse; penumbra can also be used metaphorically to describe a “gray area” or something existing in a lesser degree.
This exhibition explores the “gray area” of lived experiences– the memories that hover just out of reach, the emotions that register only faintly in the body. This is the terrain of nearexperiences, of things that don’t fit neatly into language or immediate recall. In everyday life, penumbras (or the fringe region of experiences) are easily dismissed, ignored, forgotten. The soft, shifting edges of experience are uncomfortable; this is where boundaries blur and perception is uncertain– we don’t attend to what can barely be felt, what can hardly be processed. In this state, we are invited to ponder nuance, to notice what lies just beyond direct illumination. The fringe region serves as a quiet threshold where implicit knowing begins to take shape, offering a more expansive, embodied understanding of the world. This subtle periphery holds creative potential precisely because it is unresolved.” - Jite Agbro
PATRICIA ROVZAR GALLERY
1111 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101
www.rovzargallery.com | 206-223-0273 | mail@rovzargallery.com
“The Catalyst,” encaustic collage on panel, 60 x 24 inches, $4,000.00
“Taking Vigil,” encaustic collage on panel, 48 x 48 inches, $6,200.00
“Distant Memory,” encaustic collage on panel, 48 x 36 inches, $4,700.00
“Appraisal,” encaustic collage on panel, 60 x 40 inches, $6,500.00
“Veil,” encaustic collage on panel, 30 x 15 inches, $1,500.00
“Return Again,” encaustic collage on panel, 48 x 24 inches, $3,200.00
“What Can’t Be Named,” encaustic collage on panel, 48 x 48 inches, $6,200.00
“Firing Lines,” encaustic collage on panel, 60 x 48 inches, $7,800.00
“Lose Speed,” encaustic collage on panel, 60 x 24 inches, $4,000.00
“The Beauty Found in Everyday,” encaustic collage on panel, 60 x 48 inches, $7,800.00
“Euphemisms,” encaustic collage on panel, 48 x 36 inches, $4,700.00
“Wake,” encaustic collage on panel, 10 x 10 inches, $800.00
“The Road,” encaustic collage on panel, 6 x 4 inches, $500.00
“Mirroring Feeling I,” encaustic collage on panel, 40 x 30 inches, $3,200.00
