She/Her/Hers
http://www.sophiachai.com
camera.sophia@gmail.com
Drawing/Painting, Interdisciplinary, Photography, Sculpture/Installation
In-person, Online, Hybrid mentor (in-person and online)

BIO 

Sophia Chai makes site-specific installations of her photographs through a series of translations between different mediums. Lifting the lines between drawing, painting, architecture, and photography, Chai probes beneath the layers that have conditioned our expectations of what a picture is and hence, all modes of seeing. Chai’s recent solo exhibitions include Sight Lines at the Rochester Art Center, Interpolation at Hair+Nails Gallery, and A Room of Her Own at 106 Green Gallery (Brooklyn, NY). Selected group exhibitions include Color Shape Form Body at Marinaro Gallery (New York, NY), Around Flat at Knockdown Center (Queens, NY), and Bronx Calling: The Third AIM Biennial, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY). Chai is a recipient of grants from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2019), Minnesota State Arts Board (2020, 2022), and a 2019/2020 MCAD Jerome Fellow. Chai is presently working on her first permanent public outdoor art project for Discovery Walk, a new four-block linear parkway in downtown Rochester, commissioned by the city of Rochester and Destination Medical Center. Chai lives and works in Rochester, Minnesota and is represented by Hair+Nails Gallery in Minneapolis.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY & MENTORSHIP

As a teacher and a mentor, I am fully invested in facilitating safe, open spaces that nurture freedom of thought, curiosity, intellect, and fearlessness. I believe that a good mentorship can provide invaluable resources and support to a young artist who is embarking on a path of self-discovery.  As an art practitioner, I am committed to cultivating good habits that serve as a foundation for being fully engaged with the daily studio practice.  I believe that such a foundation can be pivotal for the life-long process of making work outside of art school.