Connection to Place

In P.L.U.A. (Proposed Land Use Action), the new studio exhibition at MadArt Seattle, print artist Jite Agbro reimagines the public housing complex where she grew up in Seattle’s Central District. The current structure still stands and is home to many Seattle residents. It’s been years since Agbro lived there as a teenager, but recent news of the complex’s impending demolition brought an intense and complex emotional reckoning for her. This exhibition is born from Agbro’s processing of the loss of her childhood home.

Agbro thoughtfully places architectural textiles and prints throughout the MadArt studio space to create a fragmented rendering of her former home. Patrons will see large, semi-transparent graphic panels hanging horizontally and vertically throughout the exhibition.

A statement from MadArt explains that Agbro’s typical work incorporates the human form to comment on cultural inheritance, P.L.U.A. is much less figurative:

“Much like traversing through an urban landscape, the installation presents viewers with several perspectives, a visual and hopeful metaphor that suggests our life position is shaped, but not necessarily controlled, by external conditions. Further, P.L.U.A. provides a reflection of emotional connection to place, observing how nuanced and fluid our relationship to the built environment can be and how memory often tethers itself to the physical world.”

Be sure to explore the past work of Jite Agbro on her personal website. If you’d like to view her P.L.U.A. work in progress, you can visit MadArt Seattle open studio sessions through March 11. Open studio allows patrons to get a chance to meet the artist, experience her creative process firsthand, and watch the exhibition come to life. The exhibition officially opens on March 13 and runs through April 30. MadArt is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5pm.