Unruly Matter

Maria Kunigk’s work unfolds in the space between control and chaos, where textiles, painting, and digital photography intersect in unexpected, often unruly ways. Trained in analog photography and steeped in art history, she brings a quiet, reflective depth to a practice that resists resolution. In her hands, materials are not obedient—they wander, unravel, distort. Thread becomes a drawing that hesitates mid-line; pixels melt into fabric; pigment bleeds without apology.

Unruly Matter is not just a title—it’s a strategy. Kunigk allows her materials to misbehave, inviting in the glitch, the flaw, the overgrowth. Her works suggest gardens gone rogue, images half-remembered, structures barely holding together. Beauty here is unpolished, and meaning is always in motion. Nothing is fixed—everything shifts.

What emerges is a visual and tactile terrain shaped by imperfection and intuition, where presence and absence, image and object, digital and handmade exist in constant, layered dialogue. Kunigk doesn’t tidy the edges; she lets them speak.

“The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836

contact: cikunigk@gmail.com