Artist Bio:
Sophie Chao Earned her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2025, studying visual arts and design, and has since been based in the Baltimore area. In 2024 She studied oil painting in Florence Italy at Syracuse University and fiber arts at the Lorenzo De Medici arts program.
As a textile artist and Oil painter Sophie’s work combines materiality into large scale multimedia composition. Born in Sanfransisco but raised in Maryland Sophie has ties to both the East coast and the West. Her background as a multicultural, Korean Chinese Swedish American has shaped how her work critiques American consumption. Her practice revolves around themes of American Iconography, the overt masculinization of Western Media, and the subsequent exploitation of Asian Feminitity.
Her work have been shown in multiple gallerys such as as the Frame Gallery in Pittsburgh, Alt Projects in Los Angeles, Maryland Art place in Baltimore, XO gallery in Baltimore, the Tomayko Foundation in Pittsburgh, and the Walters museum in Baltimore .
She is a two-time recipient of the Frank-Ratchye Further Fund grants (2025). In 2019, she received a Congressional Recognition from Elijah Cummings at the Walters Art Museum, in 2025 she was awarded the Samuel Rosenberg Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2026 received a merit scholarship to the Oxbow school of art and artist residency.
In 2026 she attended the Vermont Studio Center as an Artist in Residence.
