Color Perception: Solo Exhibition
2018
mixed media
variable
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, April 22 to June 3, 2018.
Color Perception: Solo Exhibition
2018
mixed media
variable
Skin Tone Chart: white, apricot, peach, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany, sepia, black
2017
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, color pencil, on mixed media board
22"x25.5" (framed)
Collage drawing
Untitled
2018
Leather, acrylic, wood panel, nails
18"x18"
woven leather
Untitled Series
2017-2018
Leather, acrylic, wood panel, nails
Woven leather, installation view
Skin Tone Drawings
2017-18
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, color pencil, on mixed media board
Skin Tone 12: peach, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany, sepia, black
2018
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, color pencil, on mixed media board
14.75"x14.25" (framed)
Woven paper, collage drawing
Color Perception
2018
mixed media
variable
Installation view.
Dresses for Linda Brown (Brown vs. Board of Education)
2018
silk cotton
child size 8, women size 16
dress on left child size 8, dress on right women size 16
Simultaneous Contrast Wall
2018
silk cotton
10'x14'
installation view
Simultaneous Contrast Wall
2018
silk cotton
10'x14'
Skin, Territories, Flag: burnt sienna
2018
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, cotton silk
60"x53"
Skin Tone 1: apricot, peach, burnt sienna, mahogany
2017
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, color pencil, on mixed media board
26"x22" (framed)
Collage drawing
Steps & Columns: apricot, peach, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany, sepia, black
2018
Crayola Multicultural Crayons melted on paper, color pencil, on mixed media board
26"x22" (framed)
Collage drawing

In her recent body of work, Agüero-Esparza presents the viewer with abstractions created using the skin tone palette of the Color Your World: Crayola Multicultural Crayons set. Referencing Joseph Albers’ color theory in the title of the exhibition, Agüero-Esparza’s leather, fabric and paper works explore the idea of a “racialized abstraction” connecting her mixed media works to colorism and the personal experience and representation of one’s color. In the evocative quote below, although Albers is referring to the visual perception of chromatic color, his language is tinged with words that connote experiencing color as having social implications.

“As “gentlemen prefer blondes,” so everyone has preference for certain colors and prejudices against others. This applies to color combinations as well. It seems good that we are of different tastes. As it is with people in our daily life, so it is with color. We change, correct, or reverse our opinions about colors, and this change of opinion may shift forth and back. Therefore, we try to recognize our preferences and our aversions—what colors dominate in our work; what colors, on the other hand, are rejected, disliked, or of no appeal. Usually a special effort in using disliked colors ends with our falling in love with them.”  

–Josef Albers, Interaction of Color, 1963