Soft Skills

Eleanor Sabin: Soft Skills

Colorado State University, Visual Arts Building, Directions Gallery

551 W. Pitkin Street, Fort Collins, CO 80523

March 23, 2026–April 24, 2026

Admission: free

Review by Paloma Jimenez

A chain reaction can lead to catastrophe or creation and the end result may sharply veer from the original intent. Each point of contact crackles towards a crescendo, but the connection remains precarious. Eleanor Sabin’s exhibition Soft Skills at Colorado State University’s Directions Gallery ponders and mournfully unravels this complexity of connection through a variety of contrasting materials.  

An installation view of Eleanor Sabin’s exhibition Soft Skills in the Directions Gallery at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Eleanor Sabin, Yard Waste, 2025, concrete, wheat stalks, cotton string, and plywood, 18 x 8 x 8 inches. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

The fraught link between humans and the natural world stands out as a clear theme in Sabin’s art practice. Geometric lines often disrupt the chaos of organic textures and plant matter valiantly (or begrudgingly) adapts to human intervention. In Yard Waste, a cluster of wheat stalks rise from a concrete base, perched atop two plywood bricks. Composite materials holding domesticated crops allude to a sterile distancing from more wild forms of existence, and perhaps point towards an evolutionary inevitability of what future plant life will look like. 

Eleanor Sabin, Untitled (Twisty Sticks 1-3), 2024-26, sticks and copper pipe fittings, dimensions variable. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Other works in the exhibition also embrace this Frankensteinian elegance. Fractured sticks joined together with copper pipe fittings writhe on the ground in Untitled (Twisty Sticks 1-3). The sticks seem paralyzed with the demands of fitting into a standardized shape, yet hold onto hope that the constriction may offer a path towards a bit of life-sustaining water and sun. It can be difficult to accurately capture a state of transition through sculpture, due to the mostly static finality of three dimensions, yet the simplicity of Sabin’s gesture communicates the tender horror of transformation.  

Eleanor Sabin, Growth Series 1-9, 2025-2026, India ink on paper, each drawing 14 x 17 inches. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

A detail view of Eleanor Sabin’s Growth Series 1-9, 2025-2026, India ink on paper, each drawing 14 x 17 inches. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

A group of ink drawings on paper, Growth Series 1-9, also explores the disruption of wildness. Lines of negative space run through splattered foliage patterns, as if mapping the untamed area for future construction. The stark contrast in Sabin’s two-dimensional work mimics the hunting pulse of a heatmap; indeed, the modern human approach to land is overwhelmingly predatory and extractive.

Eleanor Sabin, Genius Loci, 2022, carved cherry plywood and ink, 30 x 40 inches. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Genius Loci exudes a more joyful frenzy that can still be found in life’s entanglements. [1] Hatched lines carved out of the cherry plywood cluster together in a unified chaos. The orientation of this work remains unclear, whether it’s a skyward view through trees or a pile of branches on the forest floor, but the perspective happily rests somewhere in the thick of things.

Eleanor Sabin, Lineage, 2026, branches, copper leaf, patina, oak, velvet, upholstery fabric, and thread, 2 x 10 x 7 feet. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

A detail view of Eleanor Sabin’s Lineage, 2026, branches, copper leaf, patina, oak, velvet, upholstery fabric, and thread, 2 x 10 x 7 feet. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Sabin further explores the poetic potential of shadows in Lineage, an installation that includes interlocked rings of branches and black quilts. The improbable branch links, glinting with a coppery patina, represent the bonds between family members—each branch of the family tree grows its own gnarled trauma and glimmering memories. [2] Fractures are always possible, but shared history also fortifies a family. Surrounding the links, three small piecework quilts—a medium historically used to record family and social narratives—of velvet and upholstery fabric stretch inside their frames as if flayed to reveal an underlying story.

Eleanor Sabin, Ambition | Anchor, 2024-26, carbonized 2 x 3’s, paper, airbrushed acrylic, and thread, 4 x 2 x 7 feet. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

A detail view of Eleanor Sabin’s Ambition | Anchor, 2024-26, carbonized 2 x 3’s, paper, airbrushed acrylic, and thread, 4 x 2 x 7 feet. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Ambition | Anchor sends the narrative vertical with a quilted paper scroll draped through the rungs of a charred ladder. The delicate lines of the paper seem to rely on the solidity of the ladder to hold up their lengthy progression. Their shadows intermingle. While the title offers clues to the symbolic meaning of the sculpture, the lasting resonance of the piece lies in the felt sense of reciprocity. 

In the background: Eleanor Sabin, Shadow Net (Nap Net), 2026, cotton string and maple, dimensions variable. In the foreground: Eleanor Sabin, Untitled (Twisty Sticks 1-3), 2024-26, sticks and copper pipe fittings, dimensions variable. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Shadow Net (Nap Net) also feels as though it is progressing towards something larger, or that its creation has been interrupted, due to the dangling maple shuttle and gauge still attached. The sagging grid casts shadows on the wall and beckons the viewer closer. It is large enough to be a comforting shawl, an impractical table cloth, or a beguiling trap. 

An installation view of Eleanor Sabin’s exhibition Soft Skills. Image by Paloma Jimenez.

Throughout Soft Skills, the objects never quite settle into one definitive place. Instead, Eleanor Sabin allows materials to rest, to shift, to break, to fall, to expand, to aspire, and their eventual point of connection or collision builds the story. 

Paloma Jimenez (she/her) is an Editorial Coordinator at DARIA and an artist, writer, and teacher. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been featured in international publications. She received her BA from Vassar College and her MFA from Parsons School of Design.


[1] Genius loci: the pervading spirit of a place. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved March 29, 2026, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genius%20loci.

[2] From my conversation with the artist.