GROUP EXHIBITION

Color is not real. Despite our extraordinary experience of color perception, all colors are mere illusions, in the sense that, although people normally think that objects appear colored because they are colored, this belief is mistaken. It is the purview of the skilled artist to harness the illusion of color to create meaningful work. Artists invented the first pigments—a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal, and chalk—as early as 40,000 years ago, creating a basic palette of five colors: red, yellow, brown, black, and white. Since then, the history of color has been one of perpetual discovery, whether through exploration or scientific advancement. However, color is not a physical property of an object—it is a sensation, just like smell or taste. Neither objects nor lights are colored, but colors are the result of neural processes. Paradoxically, color can affect our mood, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration.

If color is in fact an illusion, how do we assess our relationship with visual art? What are the things happening beyond our mind’s ability to process? What is coded beyond our perception? Through figuration and abstraction, the ten artists in Color Coded push the possibilities of color as a tool to stimulate our imagination and challenge our visual senses.

Dexter Wimberly is an American curator based in Japan who has organised exhibitions in galleries and institutions around the world including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, The Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, KOKI Arts in Tokyo, and The Third Line in Dubai. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Kinkade Family Foundation. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the online education platform, CreativeStudy.