Brings Me Back You

Brings Me Back You original painting by Justin Kite (Ngati Kahungunu)

Dimensions: 1204 x 1204 x 45mm

“In art as in love, instinct is enough.” – Anatole France 

This is a statement piece, bold and strong.

Each work I do is a step towards the next piece. This series is nostalgic, Incorporating romantic stills from the silver screen. Centred around love but also using game references/motifs to symbolise both sides of life and love. The ups and downs, sometimes we win, sometimes lose. Everything has a used by date, food, love, life, our planet….. It is temporal and futile to fight.

I can’t remember the actors but choose people that fit my thoughts and aesthetic at the time. Mighty Mouse is just a fictitious, likeable powerhouse.

14 Feb is on the tag, which is when cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawkes Bay, on Valentines Day, a day of love but not on that day. I like to pick certain images that I resonate with, to place in composition to tell a visual story, but I like the viewer to bring their own thoughts to the Artwork. The Queen chess piece signifies balance, beauty and power. Every work is a self-portrait, from mind to hand. The Buzzy Bee is a kiwi icon which bring in old memories of first steps and innocence.

Justin Kite’s latest works are visually strong superimpositions, full of Pop imagery,
framed together with carefully considered relationships. Paramount is the way the
subject matter and the formal elements sit together. He constantly contemplates
scale, form, space, line, colour, emphasis, harmony and more. Composing nostalgic,
statement pieces that ask the viewer to scan the artwork, not to understand, but just
to look and see what they want to see.

Kite has lived, worked and taught Art and Design in Aotearoa, Europe, China, USA and Australia. Creating public paintings and Sculptures, design commissions, logos,
published a children’s book and exhibiting in several solo and group shows including
NZ Art Show, Art in the Park, EAST, and The Hawkes Bay Review. 

"I have taught Visual Art and Design in New Zealand and Shanghai, China for 14 years. Living and working in a range of different countries has been a major stimulus in my art-making process. I enjoy playing with the relationships and visual hierarchy of silhouettes and internal narratives to achieve contradictions and surreal worlds. Taking observations of diversity and everyday situations. I play with the multi-layers of societal contexts, attempting to highlight the complexities and randomness of post-modern life." - Justin Kite