The 2019-2022 Color Match Game Tournament
For the first time since its creation, the Color Match Game is being played as a framed work of art. Since its launch in September 2019, Steve Rockwell’s Color Match Game has surpassed 50 matches. Paricipating players from Toronto art galleries include, Robert Birch, Christopher Cutts, Robert Kananaj, Rafi Ghanaghounian, YM Whelan, and Olga Korper’s associate director Taiga Lipson. A selection of these games will be posted on the Color Match Game website, where attendees will have the opportunity to vote on promising contenders toward a winning tournament match.
“Color Match Game.” was first played competitively in 1999, when it was introduced to resident artists at Omi International Arts Center in Upstate New York. As a guest speaker at Omi, Rockwell introduced Color Match as an Aesthetic Olympics, the artists coming literally from across the globe. Three of the winning games, featuring players from USA, Brazil, and Argentina. The gold medal winners here turned out to be Americans Steve Mumford and John Powers. Over the years, tournaments have been featured at art fairs across the continent, with matches played in New York City, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
Although the playing of Color Match is inherently no more complicated than a colorized tic-tac- toe, the resulting variables of each played game, are infinitely more complex. Each game board records a specific moment in time and place between two players. They constitute, in effect, “a conversation in color.”
The invitation to play Color Match Game is extended to anyone interested in participating both within and outside the arts community. Prospective players may email: steve@dartmagazine.com