About the Exhibition
This exhibition presents Marita Setas Ferro’s textile sculptures as material reflections on marine ecosystems, care, and environmental precarity. Through crochet and knitting, techniques rooted in heritage and slowness, marine forms emerge as soft architectures shaped by repetition, labor, and attention. The works engage sustainability as an embedded practice, using recycled and upcycled materials to foreground responsibility within the act of making itself.
Light, texture, and scale evoke the fragile equilibrium between regeneration and erosion that defines underwater life today. Rather than depicting nature, the sculptures invite proximity and embodied response, allowing touch, softness, and vulnerability to operate as forms of knowledge. Situated between craft and contemporary sculpture, the exhibition proposes sustainability as an ethical relationship between material, memory, and the fragile systems we inhabit and risk losing.
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Exhibition Gallery
Anemones in Volcanic Rock 2024
Wool, polyester, acrylic, polyamide yarns, upcycled copper (for the internal structure), recycled polyester net (back of the sculpture), 100% recycled polyester padding. Crochet, textile sculpture.
Blue Anemones 2022
100% recycled polyester padding, wool, acrylic, polyester and polyamide yarns. Crochet, textile sculpture, machine construction.
Fading Luminescent Corals 2024
Wool, polyester, acrylic, polyamide yarns, upcycled copper rings (for the internal structure), LED lights and electrical connections, recycled polyester net (back of the sculpture). Crochet, textile sculpture.
Grey Anemones 2021
100% recycled polyester padding, wool, acrylic, polyester and polyamide yarns. Crochet, textile sculpture.
Soft Architectures of the Sea 2024
Wool, polyester, acrylic, polyamide yarns, upcycled copper rings (for the internal structure), LED lights and electrical connections, recycled polyester net (back of the sculpture). Crochet, textile sculpture.
Red Coral Reef 2025
Wool, polyester, acrylic, polyamide yarns, upcycled copper (for the internal structure). Crochet, textile sculpture.
White Anemones 2022
100% recycled polyester padding, wool, acrylic, polyester and polyamide yarns. Crochet, textile sculpture.
White Corals 2025
Wool, polyester, acrylic, polyamide yarns, upcycled copper (for the internal structure), recycled polyester net (back of the sculpture). Crochet, textile sculpture.
Ichahpe-Hu / Now Know Ye 2018
100% recycled polyester padding, wool, acrylic, polyester and polyamide yarns. Crochet, textile sculpture, machine construction.
Artist’s Statement
My artistic voice was shaped through early immersion in ceramics, later expanding into textiles, fashion, and sculptural materials. Working with thread and needle revealed a unique sculptural freedom, where softness invites touch. Tactility is central to my practice, creating sensory dialogue and deeper connection beyond sight alone, allowing the work to be felt as well as seen.
About the Artist
Marita Setas Ferro
Marita Setas Ferro is a Portuguese multidisciplinary creative working across art, fine craft, fashion, sustainability, and cultural management. Her textile sculptures reinterpret marine forms through crochet and knitting, creating a dialogue between tradition and innovation. Her practice bridges craft, design, and art, aiming to inspire cultural awareness and meaningful human connection.
Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego.
This activity is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.
