ChromaZone/Chromatique
ChromaZone/Chromatique was a Toronto-based artist collective founded in 1981 and active primarily in Toronto through 1985 before official disbanding in 1986. ChromaZone’s six members were Andy Fabo, Sybil Goldstein, Oliver Girling, Oliver Girling, H.P. (Hans-Peter) Marti, and Rae Johnson.
ChromaZone’s aim was to build an artist-controlled platform for “new figurative” and representational work in early-1980s Toronto and to test how art could circulate through social life — part exhibition venue, part community hangout, and part cultural agitator.
Its first and most well-known phase was as a DIY, artist-run gallery space at 320 Spadina Avenue, operating from September 1981 to May 1983.¹ During that 20-month period, the gallery hosted 45 programming events including exhibitions, poetry readings, and fashion shows.²
In 1982, ChromaZone participated in Monumenta, a collaborative multi-venue survey of representational art involving four Toronto galleries — ChromaZone, YYZ, A Space, and Gallery 76 — and showcasing the work of 75 artists.³
After closing the Spadina gallery in May 1983, ChromaZone pivoted toward larger “project exhibitions,” culminating in the 1983 mega-event Chromaliving — held in a vacant former department store (the recently closed Harridges) at 131 Bloor St. West.⁴ A month-long show involving 150 artists, it was co-curated by Tim Jocelyn and Andy Fabo and aimed to merge “art and lifestyle” through furniture, fashion, and painting.⁵
More on the founding members of ChromaZone/Chromatique can be found at the CCCA Canadian Art Database:
ANDY FABO
https://ccca.art/creator/201/
RAE JOHNSON
https://ccca.art/creator/305/
TONY WILSON
https://ccca.art/creator/653/
SYBIL GOLDSTEIN
https://ccca.art/creator/233/
OLIVER GIRLING
https://ccca.art/creator/229/
H.P. MARTI
H.P. Marti (Hans Peter Marti) is a Swiss-born artist, photographer, and poet who was a key figure in the Toronto art scene during the early 1980s. In 1985, H.P. Marti moved to Zurich.
Footnotes
¹ Art Gallery of Ontario, Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives, ChromaZone/Chromatique Fonds (Gift of ChromaZone/Chromatique, 2017): “Between September 1981 and May 1983, the collective operated out of their gallery space ChromaZone/Chromatique, located at 320 Spadina Ave, Toronto.” Available at: https://atom.ago.ca/sc149
² Ibid. “Between 1981 and May 1983, the Collective mounted 45 varying cultural events including exhibitions, poetry readings, banquets and fashion shows.”
³ Ibid. “In 1982 … [the Collective] participated in Monumenta, a collaboration among four galleries, including ChromaZone/Chromatique, which showcased current representational art in Toronto through the work of 75 artists.” See also: David Clarkson, “A Monumenta Memoir,” YYZ Artists’ Outlet, https://yyzartistsoutlet.org/essays/a-monumenta-memoir/; and Philip Monk, “A Year in Pictures,” http://www.philipmonk.com/a-year-in-pictures (identifying the four participating venues and noting the exhibition opened September 3, 1982, reviewed in The Globe and Mail by John Bentley Mays, September 11, 1982).
⁴ AGO ChromaZone/Chromatique Fonds: “In October [1983], the Collective … opened Chromaliving, a month-long exhibition of 150 artists in the vacant 10,000 square feet space at 131 Bloor St. W, Toronto, recently vacated by the Harridges Department store.” See also: Artforum, “Chromaliving” (review), February 1984, https://www.artforum.com/events/chromaliving-225902/
⁵ AGO ChromaZone/Chromatique Fonds: “This exhibition, co-curated by Tim Jocelyn and Andy Fabo, sought to showcase the merging of art and lifestyle and featured furniture, fashion and painting.” See also: Wikipedia, “ChromaZone/Chromatique Collective,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromaZone/Chromatique_Collective (“Jocelyn and his partner Fabo curated the monumental Chromaliving, which exhibited rooms and furniture by more than 150 artists and designers in 10,000 square feet of retail space”).
Collective City 