Exhibition: Colourism

Community, Event, Exhibitions, Free, In Person

Thursday 6th 6:00pm – Sunday 9th November 2025 4:00pm

God's House Tower, Town Quay Road, Southampton, SO14 2NY

This exhibition at God’s House Tower explores Colourism, the bias attaching value to different complexions, and its impact on Black, Mixed-Race, and White communities, past and present. It encourages reflection on how Colourism shapes today’s culture, beauty and identity.

Colourism, previously known as Shadism, is a prejudice in which Black and Brown people with darker skins experience disadvantages compared with those with a lighter complexion.

The aim of this exhibition is to explore Colourism, which has had a more profound impact on life and culture than many presume. This issue impacts very differently on Black communities, White communities, and Mixed-Race communities.

For those who may not know, Colourism is the value we attach to people of different complexions. This can be traced back to centuries of colonialism and some argue that this is a direct consequence of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, although different complexions could be found in some parts of the African continent prior to that.

Clearly the manner in which Black images have been used in the West tells us that choices have been made regarding the selections chosen and the use of complexions of peoples whose origins are from the African continent. We are only too familiar with how fashion, advertising and the media have played their part in popularising certain characteristics and imbuing certain complexions with notions of either beauty or unattractiveness.

Colourism is a by-product of Racism, and we all make judgments – either consciously, unconsciously, or sub-consciously – regarding this issue.

About the Photographer: Nosa Malcolm

Commissioned & published internationally, Nosa Malcolm is a social, documentary and live music photographer based on the south coast. With roots in analogue photography, and a journey beginning in the early 80’s with Mount Pleasant Photography Workshop, a pioneering community initiative.

Click here to see more of Nosa’s work

This exhibition hopes to stimulate further discussion to create a greater understanding.

Click here to learn more about the Colourism Project

Crawford Room Access

The Crawford Room does not have step free access. If you have concerns about your visit please visit the God’s House Tower access page or get in touch with our team.