THE CHROMOPHILIACS
Richmond Art Gallery | Richmond, British Columbia | Jan. 24, 2026 - Apr. 4, 2026

”Chromophobia” - the fear of colour - “manifests itself in the many and varied attempts to purge colour from culture, to devalue colour, to diminish its significance.” So explains David Batchelor in his book Chromophobia (2000). Historically marginalized and suppressed within European and North America, colour continues to be linked to notions of impurity, primitivism, and decadence.

This fear of colour within Euroamerican culture, art, and society reaches far beyond a simple preference pf palette. In some manifestations of chromophobia, colour is belittled as merely decorative - existing in the realm of the exotic and the primitive, the frivolous and the feminine. In more extreme cases, colour is reviled as foreign and outright dangerous. As Batchelor argues: “As with all prejudices, its manifest form, its loathing, masks a fear: a fear of contamination and corruption by something that is unknown or appears to be unknowable.” His thesis continues to resonate today with the amplification of so-called “neutral” hues in fashion, architecture, and interior design on social media, and the rise of white supremacist movements rooted in xenophobic sentiment, where whiteness is equated with racial purity, to be protected at any cost.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the artists showcased in The Chromophiliacs. Profoundly inspired by colour, their multifaceted practices are deeply rooted in a myriad of craft practices, global aesthetics, and cultural traditions, from Persian miniatures, Coast Salish ovoid forms, and Mesoamerican mythology, to hyperbolic crochet, tropical plein air painting, and African American memory jugs. Repudiating the seemingly eternal rationale of the “white cube”, artists Diyan Achjadi, Moozhan Ahmadzadegan, Maru Aponte, Sandeep Johal, Yaimel López Zaldívar, Laura Meza Orozco, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Malina Sintnicolaas, Charlene Vickers, and Jan Wade transform Richmond Art Gallery’s walls with their complex engagement with colour.

Text by Zoe Chan, Curator
Photo credit: Michael Love