MARCH 25 - MAY 28, 2026

Exhibition Opening with the Artist
Wednesday, March 25th, 5 - 7 PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Soft Grids, a solo exhibition of new fiber works by artist Katrina Sánchez. The gallery will host a public  reception with the artist on March 25 from 5-7 PM. This will be Sánchez’s first solo exhibition with SOCO Gallery.

In Soft Grids, Sánchez integrates programmed and participatory movement into her established soft sculpture works. Sánchez’s practice has always been grounded in joy, play, and the construction of comfort. Her works involve knitting large, linear “noodles” which she then stuffs with fiber material to create large-scale “soft sculptures.” The noodles are created in a variety of vibrant colors that are then woven together, some with exposed ties at the end, others in clean folds. Each weave highlights the materiality of the work, and the hands that created them. 

Sánchez, who is of Panamanian and American descent, grew up watching her grandmother sew clothes. When she grew older, Sánchez worked as a seamstress herself and began making her own textiles through knitting. With the onslaught of the 2020 Pandemic, Sánchez began to explore her work as an aid or comfort during hard times. The plush, organic nature of the noodles, when woven together, is reminiscent of something one would use to soothe themselves as a child, or a soft pillow to lay your head on at night. The soft forms provide a sense of ease and familiarity for the viewer, evoking both an immediate sense of calm but also joy.

In Soft Grids, the soft forms of Sánchez’s work are combined with an exploration of new materials. Sánchez repurposes recycled fiber fill along with a variety of fabrics and yarns to create dimension and texture in each work: eyelash yarn is woven around iridescent fabrics and mohair rests on colorful knits. The play of color, line, and texture adds in unexpected moments of discovery for the viewer. 

Sánchez moves beyond material and texture as sole sources of delight, engaging audience participation and movement. Soft Grids affixes Sánchez’s woven works to engineered aluminum bases. Some incorporate mechanical systems that allow the woven units to shift in programmed intervals, generating movement across the grid. Others invite direct audience interaction through exposed gears that manually rotate the weavings, activating the composition through touch.

Each work in Soft Grids involves viewer participation, from tracing the movement of the noodles with the eye, to uncovering new materials, to physically interacting with a work on the wall. Joy and comfort combine to encourage play in each of Sánchez’s colorful creations.

Katrina Sánchez (b. 1995, Panamá)

Katrina Sánchez is an interdisciplinary Panamanian-American artist based in Charlotte, NC. Working with fibers and mixed materials Kat creates vibrant and tactile works that explore ideas of joy, play, intimacy, healing and renewal. Her work is inspired by her experience as a seamstress and the fiber works of matriarchs in her family. By pairing traditional practices like weaving and knitting with modern methods, she experiments with texture, color, and scale to explore how we relate to ourselves, one another, and to our environments. 

Katrina received a BFA in Fibers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is a recipient of the NC Arts and Science Council Artist Support Grant and is an alumni artist-in-residence of Goodyear Art and The Village at Commonwealth. She has exhibited work at the Mint Museum Randolph and Uptown, Charlotte, NC; Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Miller Gallery, Charleston, SC; Max I. Jackson Gallery at Queens University of Charlotte, Charlotte, NC; among others.