Surface Bound explores the tension between what is seen and what is suggested—between the tactile immediacy of earthly surfaces and textures, and the intangible gravitational pull of the celestial.
Surface Bound by Joy Dunigan
This collaborative exhibition by siblings Joy Dunigan and Manda Faye Dunigan (a.k.a Partners with the Sun) brings together two distinct yet interconnected bodies of work. While each collection is grounded in observation, both extend beyond it, drawing from a shared fascination with coastal landscapes, iconography, and space exploration—particularly the recent Artemis II lunar mission—not as subject matter, but as a catalyst for shape and form. Rather than depicting the literal, each body of work translates elements of that visual language into compositions rooted in the physical world.
That translation unfolds through surface and process, approached from two complementary directions. Joy’s work manifests through layered, print-informed construction, where photographic imagery is disrupted, reworked, and reconstructed through mixed media and successive surface positioning. These works test relationships between matte and gloss, absorption and reflection, stability and movement. Manda’s work, rooted in cyanotype, engages an equally material process shaped by light, chemistry, exposure, and time. For Surface Bound, she extends this practice through digital collage, introducing a controlled technological layer that intersects with the inherent variability of the cyanotype process. Analog and digital systems coexist peacefully, creating a dialogue between unpredictability and intention.
Together, these approaches establish a shared graphic language of structure, repetition, and reconfiguration. Pattern, layering, and intervention introduce a sense of orbit and rhythm, suggesting external forces while remaining materially grounded.
Half Moon by Manda Faye Dunigan
Color also operates as a defining force while reinforcing their connection. Joy’s palette draws from aerospace references—metallic silvers, visor-like golds, and oxidized orange—each accenting compositions that ultimately resolve as organic and terrestrial. By contrast, Manda’s cyanotypes are defined by their striking, saturated blue field—an inherently photographic and chemical result that evokes atmosphere, depth, distance, and calm. In dialogue, these palettes move between earth and sky, surface and space, material and light.
In this way, Surface Bound is not about departure, but perception. The farther the gaze extends outward, the more acute the awareness becomes of what is directly in front of us. Meaning is not constructed through illusion of space, but discovered within the surface itself—held in its variations, disruptions, and its capacity to reflect material, process, and idea.
Surface Bound opens on Friday, May 8 at Location Gallery, with sales benefiting Over the Moon Diaper Bank.