Brazilian born Chicago based artist.

The experience of migrating means carrying a whole self into a place that only sees part of it. Some bonds fade, and losses has no ritual. You can’t go back to who you were, and you won’t fully become who this place expects. But that in-between is where you start building. You gather what you still can, and you put it together into something new. It isn’t life restored. It’s a life that grows because you let yourself change.

My work treats existence, my own and that of the objects I use, as something that never quite settles. The process of fragmentation here is real and felt: a record of what I think something was, what I think it is, and what I think it can become.

The assemblages suggest that identity is not a fixed quality, but develops through what happens to us and the relationships we enter. Each piece are from what remains, retaining traces of its past while taking on new forms. It is plural and always in the process of becoming.

My practice is between sculpture, assemblage, and painting. I make freestanding and wall-based works, including sculptures that can take on different configurations. In my recent work, I make objects out of other objects, treating them as participants in the creative process. Their forms, materials, and histories influence my decisions, allowing the work to emerge through an exchange rather than solely through my intentions.

“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