Chroma in Natura
Chroma in Natura brings together four artists who build conceptual color worlds that explore ideas of perception through lived experience. Maria Dumlao's History in RGB combines images of Filipino history, popular culture, mythic folklore, and landscape to propose alternatives to colonial narratives ,while Anne Schaefer's layered geometric abstractions use complex hue shifts designed to play with light and the limits of optical perception. Both Kate Abercrombie and Cindy Stockton Moore start with slow observation: Kate interweaving personal and family narratives with contemporary and historical imagery into densely patterned gouache paintings, and Cindy investigating the minutiae of the natural world through foraged color and on-site stop animation. This collaborative retreat would center around cross-pollinating color concepts in response to nature –together and adjacent.
Anne Schafer screen printing in her studio
The retreat will be used to develop new approaches and techniques while also workshopping potential collaboration. In addition to independent studio pursuits, we would schedule daily, rotating skill share sessions and meals, alongside time together outdoors. These skill shares will be documented and can be shared with the public in part - in the form of a zine/publication or in a workshop/demonstration format. All of the artists have different subsets of expertise–screen printing, digital, animation, painting, inkmaking– and experience sharing that knowledge through workshops and public engagement.
Kate Abercrombie lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. She has an MFA from University of Texas at Austin and a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia. She has been included in exhibitions in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vox Populi, Fleisher/Ollman, Little Berlin, and Black Floor. She has also shown at the Creative Research Laboratory, Austin, TX. In 2005, she received an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts. In 2009, she was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
Maria Dumlao works with combined media, including film, video, animation, sound, photography, embroidery and installation. Her work merges images of history, popular culture, mythic folklore, landscapes, and creatures to propose alternatives to the systemic representations ordered by colonial narratives. Born in the Philippines, Maria immigrated to the US mainland, where she currently lives and works in the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape (Philadelphia). Most recently she completed a commissioned installation for Philadelphia International Airport.
Anne Schaefer's lives and works in upstate New York. Her work comprises painting, print and large-scale installation in which color and pattern are paramount to creating optically challenging and perceptually immersive experiences for the viewer. Her work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University and a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Schaefer is a former print fellow at the Fabric Workshop and Museum and has been a college-level art educator for the last 15 years. She has been a member of a number of artist collectives such as Vox Populi as well as Tiger Strikes Asteroid, where she served as director from 2011-2013.
Cindy Stockton Moore is a Philadelphia based artist who works with aqueous media to create multimedia animations, works on paper, and site-specific installations with foraged color. Installations currently on view (2025) include ’an openness to all things lovely’ at Glen Foerd on the Delaware and ‘Other Absences’ at Eastern State Penitentiary. Cindy's experimental, often collaborative, videos screen in festivals and exhibitions nationwide and abroad. She is a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, working primarily in the Delaware River Watershed.
