Sofia Babaeva

Sofia Babaeva is a multi-disciplinary artist. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia but the Pacific Northwest is home. In 2012, she graduated from the University of Washington’s 3D4M program with a focus in ceramics and fiber. Her practice focuses on exploring the concept of identity as it relates to place, culture, personal relationships. She often references her Russian upbringing and heritage through material choices and nods to visual traditions. In 2015, she assisted in teaching a sculptural felting workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Sofia completed the Artist Trust EDGE program in 2016. In 2017, she created site-specific hand-felted installations for the Office of Arts and Culture’s Seattle Center Sculpture Walk, the Shunpike Storefronts program, and the Fremont Solstice Parade. She also collaborated with performing artists for Medicine Ball at the Erikson Theater in Seattle and showed a new series of paintings at Zeitgeist.

Sofia received 2017 GAP Award funding for We Go Wandering Forth, a temporary installation that will be created as part of the Shunpike Storefronts program in late 2017. The installation, which will consist of wool pods of various sizes, will be hand-felted from locally sourced wool over the course of the summer in various outdoor locations throughout the Pacific Northwest.