Maria Kunigk’s work is in the space between quiet restraint and timid disorder, where form slips into a fragile meaning and reflective depth. Her practice resists a clear resolution, both emotionally and visually. It feels her works emerge from vulnerability and a sense of displacement, reflecting what feels in a space somewhere between belonging and not.

There’s a subtle unease in this; materials and images move between abstraction and familiarity, expressing how unstable memory and perception can be, in a sense of instability that also affects how time is felt in the work. Everything seems provisional. Materials are allowed to misbehave, to hold onto flaws and interruptions.
As Kunigk puts it: “It’s in the breath between thinking and speaking, in that moment before meaning settles. That’s the quiet space that lets us feel rather than know. The silence always attracts me.”

“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