Hong Kong, China & Berkeley, California – September 18, 2023 – Last Tuesday, September 12th, an extraordinary event took place at The Stallery in Hong Kong where three color-blind individuals, including the gallery’s founder and lead artist Ernest Chang, experienced vibrant colors for the very first time. With the aid of EnChroma glasses, which are designed to enhance color perception for color-blind individuals, these artists were able to perceive artwork in a way they never had before.

Prior to the live reveal, the participants discussed the difficulties color blindness posed in their lives and their expectations from the experience. As they put on the glasses, their
descriptions of the transition from a dull, muted world to an intensely colorful one were shared live with the media. The aftermath of the reveal was filled with uplifting and emotionally charged feedback. Participants expressed their newfound appreciation for the beauty of the world and the ease these glasses brought to their work and daily tasks. The entire experience was captured on video and will be shared on social media and to the press.

In a pioneering move, The Stallery will become the first art gallery in Hong Kong to provide EnChroma glasses for color-blind visitors, thereby joining over 100 other museums and galleries globally. These glasses will be permanently available for public use at The Stallery through the EnChroma Color Accessibility Program starting with the upcoming group exhibition (WOA ’23) from September 27 to October 22, 2023. Furthermore, an exciting exhibition featuring artwork exclusively by color-blind artists is planned for January 2024, marking another significant step in improving color accessibility.

WOA ‘23, which stands for Works of Art 2023, is an annually held group exhibition between a collective of prominent Hong Kong-based artists at The Stallery. This year, the exhibition will feature new and old members, again spanning a range of mediums and themes from abstract acrylics to AI-generated images and conceptual sculptures. The artists include Chak 翟宗浩, Ernest CHANG, David Boyce, David Clarke, Francis Yu Wai Luen 余偉聯, Gerard Henry, Greer Howland, Irving Cheung 張蚊, IV Chan 陳子雯, Jeremy Ip, Liu Siu Jane 廖少珍, Man Tin 田禮文, Michael Nock, Rachel Psmith, Roy Lee, Siuman Lo, Tam Wai Ping 譚偉平 and Tim Li.

All the participants artists members of the local artist collective “WoA (Workers of Art)” founded in August 2019 by founding member and prominent contemporary Chinese ink artist Chak with the aims of fostering exchange between emerging and established artists living and working in Hong Kong; and, more importantly, facilitating the ogranization of artist-initiated outreach to the local public in the form of group exhibitions in accessible venues.