Design Work:
As a designer, Sophie is passionate about graphic and brand design. She has worked freelance on projects ranging from social media branding to arts publications.
She recently worked as a Design Intern at Redscout, and at the start up app Creator vault as the sole designer
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.
Sophie works between mediums. As a textile artist and Oil painter her work combines materials 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 often revolves around themes of American Iconography, the overt masculinization of Western Media, and the 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, and in 2025 she was awarded the Samuel Rosenberg Award for Excellence in the Arts.
In 2026 she will attend the Vermont Studio Center as an Artist in Residence.
