Color Match Game, as a tournament event really hit its stride in 2004 with competitive games at Scope Art Fairs in New York, Los Angeles and Miami that year. In New York, the lobby of Hotel Gansevoort was the day venue. Scope exhibitor, Christopher Cutts hosted the more informal matches in his hotel room after the show closed for the night. Exhibiting artist Mark Karasick came by with critic Linda Nochlin. Out of the 18 games played that weekend, Nochlin’s game with Jill Shellhorn placed a close second to Praxis artist-duo tournament winners Delia Bajo and Brained Carey.
A total of 49 matches were played at the Standard in Los Angeles, May 2004. As an exhibitor at the fair this time, rather than a performance component, the games were more widely available to fair attendees this time out. It was here that color prints of the New York Color Match games were displayed for the first time, and viewers were able to cast ballots for their favorites. With some 200 votes cast, it was here that the New York Gansevoort tournament winners were determined.
The Color Match tournaments had their international launch in 1999 at Art Omi artist residency in Upstate New York. I was able to present an Aesthetic Olympics drawn from 24 artist players from around the world. Since then, Color Match games have been hosted in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, and Toronto. Recent tournaments were held at Toronto City Hall in conjuction with Janet Bellotto’s 2006 Nature in the Garage project, and at Toronto Nuit Blanche, under the direction of York University Gallery Assistant Curator Emelie Chhungur. In December 2006, dArt International magazine sponsored a Color Match© Tournament during the Miami art fairs.
When the Color Match games were performed at Toronto City Hall, they were played beside Noboru Tsubaki’s UN Shop, one of the exhibits in Janet Bellotto’s Nature in the Garage project. The playful, interactive aspect of Color Match, which crosses language and cultural barriers might lend a positive energy if performed at the upcoming DIFC Gulf Art Fair. A Color Match tournament can be designed to fit a specific location or booth with possibly an online broadcast component, or done as a roving, mobile performance where game data is posted on the web at a later time.