Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
In partnership with Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre (VLACC), join us for a guided walkthrough of The Chromophiliacs, an electrifying exhibition that celebrates colour as resistance, language, and cultural expression. This special afternoon brings together exhibiting artists Maru Aponte, Yaimel López Zaldívar, and Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo in conversation with Zoë Chan, Curator at Richmond Art Gallery, and Miret Rodriguez, art historian and founder of Curated Tastes.
Through a warm and engaging dialogue, the artists and curator will reflect on their practices, their relationship to colour, and the cultural and craft traditions that shape their work. Moderated by Rodriguez, the walkthrough invites audiences to move through the exhibition while hearing directly from the artists, offering insight into both individual works and the exhibition’s broader themes.
Curated in response to David Batchelor’s Chromophobia (2000), The Chromophiliacs challenges long-standing fears and hierarchies around colour—particularly its historic marginalization within European and North American art discourse. The exhibition embraces colour as a site of pleasure, knowledge, and cultural meaning, foregrounding diverse artistic perspectives and material practices.
The walkthrough will be followed by a reception, offering time to connect with the artists, curator, and fellow attendees.
About the Artists and Facilitator
Maru Aponte’s research explores the ecological, cultural, and psychological aspects of water. Working between Houston, Canada, and Puerto Rico, drafting sketches en plein air on the island as a starting point. By using colour and light as phenomenological tools, they reframe the landscape through a migratory experience and Caribbean identity.
Their paintings challenge traditional notions of watercolour, embracing its fluidity to explore the physicality of memory—often creating large-format works that allow viewers to walk around memory as if it were spatial terrain.
Aponte graduated with an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver in 2023. Previously, she attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated from the Painting Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Aponte was the 2023 Emily Carr Fellowship Resident at Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver, and was recently a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2024 and the Artist in Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 2025.
Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo was born in El Salvador and immigrated to Canada at age 11. He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (2001) and earned his MFA from Concordia University in 2008. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally in venues such as The International Print Centre in New York, The Vancouver Art Gallery, and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY. MARTE- Museo de Arte Moderno in EL Salvador and La Halle Saint Pierre in Paris, among others.
He is the recipient of The Artist Studio Award Program by the City of Vancouver (2015-2018), including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2010) and numerous others from the Canada Arts Council. He was shortlisted for the Pierre-Ayot Prize for Emerging Artists by the City of Montréal in 2009. In 2011, Castillo was the winner of the Victor-Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for a mid-career visual artist in Canada. He is currently based in Vancouver, BC.
Yaimel López Zaldívar is a Cuban multimedia artist based in Vancouver, Canada, since 2019. His practice includes experimental animation, printmaking, design and also education. Graduated from the Superior Institute of Design in Havana (2010). He has collaborated as an artist and designer with several organizations. In 2022, he was nominated for the Lind Prize (Polygon Gallery) for his work in experimental animation.
Miret Rodriguez is the creative director of Curated Tastes and is the former VP of VLACC. She holds an MBA in art and culture management from the Superior School of Commerce in Paris and a BA Major in Art History from UBC. Miret relies on art and the artists who make it to navigate through cultural dislocation and hybridity. Since 2020,
Miret has been interviewing Latinx artists in Canada about their immigration stories and how they express their experiences through art. This led her to curate Volver (to return, to become) in 2022 at Cityscape Community Artspace in North Vancouver.
VLACC is the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre, a non-profit organization established in 2012 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, that celebrates cultural diversity by sharing Latin American culture with all! We offer the opportunity to learn more about Latin American arts and culture, make new friends, contribute to your community, and have a wonderful time doing it!
Please note that this event will be photographed and filmed for internal documentation and promotional purposes. If you do not wish to appear in any photos or recordings, kindly inform us upon arrival.
In Partnership with VLACC and Curated Tastes.
