Chromafugue is the name of this year’s thesis exhibition of the fourteen 2025 graduates of the Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. While each artist has a distinct approach, working together in a shared space has resulted in often surprising visual connections and influences. The exhibition title, Chromafugue, suggests one powerful connection, a fascination with the expressive possibilities of color. In a fugue, of course, different melodic motifs are woven into a unified statement; so with these artists, diverse bodies of work are united by proximity and collaboration. Despite hailing from places as distant as Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Mumbai, India, or as close as Washington, D.C., their bond as a community is evident in their overlapping conversations, techniques, and content. There is also a shared understanding of painting not only as image but as material object. 

In Chromafugue, the materiality of painting is explored in substances including oil, acrylic, printed fabric, plastic, paper, wood, and colored mold. The artists both acknowledge and confront art historical precedent. While their individual voices take different forms, each relates in some way to contemporary discourse: the examination of identity and personal history, intercultural connectivity, the exploration of gender and sexuality, and the meaning of painting in relation to the digital age and our changing climate.

Featuring: Dre Burciaga, Xinyun Serene Chen, Yasheeka Dhabre, Chidinma Dureke, Veronica Hahr, Chia-Hsiu Kelly Liu, Isaac Kim, Jahniah Kum, Grant Marshall, Zsudayka Nzinga, Valentino Orlando, Madison Pate, Zaria Thomas, Joe Turner, Jorge Vara Hernandez

Curated by Interim Director Stephen Ellis, Prof. Fox Hysen, and the class of ’25.