Many Carnegie Mellon students will enter as first-years and graduate four years later having created nothing but three essays for gen eds they complained about and a mediocre coding project for their mandated 15-112 semester from hell. This is not true for Sophie Chao, who gets to keep paintings, collages, and costumes… in her basement. And these aren’t low-grade Picassos or Klees, these are Sophie Chao originals! Chao is a senior in the College of Fine Arts and just wrapped up a very impressive solo senior exhibition at The Frame. In place of getting to see her now-closed exhibition in person, you’ll have to content yourself with seeing her works on her website, sophiechao.com, and reading this article.
Her artist’s statement explains that “she examines her evolving relationship with American media. Sophie reimagines and deconstructs cultural icons, exploring the complex dynamics between media consumption and personal identity.” This was evident in her reinterpretations of pop culture icons in “2 The Death” and “Another New World Nativity.” The exhibit was diverse in both content and medium, as visitors could see works of felt and horse hair, textiles, oil paint, screenprint, etc… often combined into one piece, such as in the imposing “Hanbok Cowboys,” two imposing six-foot tall men made of textile and oil paint, or the marriage of Bruce Lee and Elvis in “An All American Union” made of oil paint, rhinestones, canvas prints, and thread. There was even a montage, “An American Icon,” that is available on YouTube.
I figured that if you’re only going to experience these pieces through words, you might as well hear from the artist herself, so after going to the exhibit, I sat down with her for an interview. It has been edited for brevity:
The Tartan: On your website you have on these wings, and then on one of the works of art exhibited at The Frame [An All American Union, 2023] you’ve got other photos of people on wings. What’s the significance?
Sophie Chao: Well for the eagles, I have a George Harrison, a Bob Dylan, and a Buddy Holly. Their bodies are bedazzled, so it’s supposed to be like the cape Elvis wears on stage in Vegas, [laughs] and like the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So Bob Dylan, because he’s the father of certain genres of rock and roll, and then George Harrison is the son, because he kind of looks like Jesus, and also because he was a direct student of Bob Dylan. Then I did Buddy Holly, because he had a very untimely death. So that piece was a wedding portrait between Bruce Lee and Elvis.
The Tartan: You’ve got a lot of Elvis stuff. I’ve never really associated him with cowboys. Is this a known thing?
Sophie Chao: Oh yeah, he has a bunch of these movies that are pretty not great, but he’s acting as a cowboy. There’s also this famous Andy Warhol screenprint of him where he’s dressed up in his cowboy outfit. And I’m not comparing Elvis to a cowboy, it’s just a combination of American imagery.
The Tartan: In your video [An American Icon, 2025] you have Elvis, Travis Scott, Thelma, and Louise. Do you just put in stuff you liked?
Sophie Chao: It’s a bunch of media that I like, but it’s specifically clips of media where the image of Asian people is mistreated — so the Travis Scott clip from FE!N that’s a billion Asian girls, it’s fucked up. I also have a lot of scenes of Bruce Lee, but then over time, it’s like the scene from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” [A scene where Bruce Lee gets thrown against a car.]
The Tartan: You talk about the trivialization of Asian femininity in one of your descriptions [at The Frame], and I was wondering if you would like to elaborate on that.
Sophie Chao: I guess all the imagery is very rooted in masculinity. I try to do a lot of depictions of glorified violence and pieces of rock and roll history and images from American media that I think are quintessentially American and also that I personally find very interesting. Asian femininity in American culture is very trivialized, and not respected on the same level.
The Tartan: That makes sense. Every time you make a work of art, do you have to write up a whole thing where you’re justifying why it exists and giving the meaning of everything?
Sophie Chao: Yeah, I usually do that. Since I’ve been doing everything within the same motif and under the same art statement, I’ve gotten a little bit lazy with my writing. When it’s under the same umbrella, I have this overarching statement I use, and in certain cases, I don’t have to write as much.
The Tartan: Do you prefer working under a more overarching statement like that?
Sophie Chao: I think it’s more fun because you can build a world.
The Tartan: You had the cowboy shooting another cowboy [Hanbok Cowboys, 2023]. I thought that was cool. And then you made a sequel to it, right, where it’s just the costumes [Hanbok Cowboy Costuming, 2025]. Do you often do that?
Sophie Chao: I have visual motifs that I reference over and over. So I like referencing this image of the West a lot. With the cowboy project, it was more like a train of thought after I made the cowboy piece, and I thought that I could make another project under the same statement.
The Tartan: When you are making these pieces, do you start with an idea and then work from there to figure out what materials you want to use? Or is it the other way around?
Sophie Chao: I usually start with collaging. With this image here [pointing to an in-progress piece], I made it on Photoshop first, and I’ve found a lot of imagery and collected it to make the original concept of this piece. I do that for most of my work. And then with materiality, it’s a second thought, focusing on how it will improve the visuals of what I’m working on.
The Tartan: One of the pieces [Wrangling a Wounded Horse, 2024] had you on a horse, right? And the horse had six legs. Then in the piece you had next to it, about the horse with six legs [This Horse Has Too Many Legs, 2024], you put a lot of emphasis on that. But then in the one with just you on the horse, it’s not even mentioned. Do you do the thing with the horse with six legs a lot?
Sophie Chao: I’ve done it twice. Originally, the horse with six legs started as a little sketch of a horse with six legs. I turned that into the first piece. Beyond the horse, I used fabric, and sort of made the horse look a little bit more like a creature than a horse. And then I revisited that first sketch because I was interested in doing another piece.
The Tartan: It was cool. It was like a centaur, except instead of having the back part be a horse and the front part human, it was like the back part was a horse, and the front part was also a horse. Actually, this might not make sense. Do you think that going to CMU has made you a better artist?
Sophie Chao: A lot of other art programs give you less freedom, but at CMU, my work is genuinely exactly what I want to do. This is from the cowboy costume I’m doing. I want to look at five outfits, pants, and then this jacket here.
The Tartan: Is it wearable?
Sophie Chao: Yes, I’m doing it for the spring show. And then also, there’s a wearable show in the School of Art.
The Tartan: That’s fun. I had no idea. I don’t know. I guess I thought that CMU art students just painted and got yelled at.
Sophie Chao: Oh, a little bit, yeah [laughs].
The Tartan: Do you get inspiration for your works from other students or teachers or stuff like that, or is it all coming from your own head?
Sophie Chao: Conceptually, most of it’s coming from my own head, but because I’m so close to so many of the other kids in the School of Art, it’s easy to make something and then call one of them to criticize and give me ideas.
The Tartan: You get to keep all your pieces, right?
Sophie Chao: Yeah, my mom has them in the basement.
The Tartan: What was the process for getting your solo show at The Frame?
Sophie Chao: Well, they have an open call, and you submit submissions to it, and if they accept you, they tell you when the show is and then you’re in charge of advertisement materials, and the whole installation process. So I had to put everything in this cart and then wheel it across campus. It was really loud. And then I’m in charge of the food, and getting people to come to the reception…
The Tartan: So the cowboy DJ, that was your idea?
Sophie Chao: Yeah [laughs].
The Tartan: So you make all this stuff, and then after the show, do you have other exhibits? Or does it all go back to the vault?
Sophie Chao: Um, it’s probably all going back to the vault [laughs], but we have the senior show at the end of the year. And there are also other opportunities to exhibit student work on campus.
The Tartan: Do you feel like there is enough awareness of all this stuff among students who aren’t in CFA?
Sophie Chao: No, I feel like CMU is pretty separated by major.
The Tartan: Do you like all the subjects that you make your art about?
Sophie Chao: It’s usually something that I’m interested in personally. A lot of my work is thinking about how I consume media. I love certain aspects of the media, and I think about how my cultural identity is related to the media I consume because a lot of the media concerns Western, big-budget type stuff. And so a lot of my recent work is critiquing that, and turning it into a more personal work.
The Tartan: [Pointing to a large in-progress work] So is that Megatron?
Sophie Chao: It’s Voltron, and he’s gonna turn into a cow. I’m still trying to figure out how.
The Tartan: So Megatron [Grandpa’s Dreaming Again, 2025], was he giving the halo to the old man?
Sophie Chao: Oh, that piece is supposed to be sort of like, who knows? Maybe he’s killing him, maybe it’s a dream.
The Tartan: Going back to the horses, so the horse is on canvas, and you have more canvas that has been sewn onto it. Was it an intentional thing, or did you just not have enough canvas?
Sophie Chao: First it was because I didn’t have enough canvas, and then I thought I could do something interesting with it, so I put the stitching so that I could paint straight on top of it.
The Tartan: Do you often make something out of adversity like that?
Sophie Chao: Sometimes it’s a problem that I have, and I just have to do something about it because I have a project due or something. But because I work a lot with textiles, the piecing together can come across as haphazard when it was quite intentional. For the stitching, first, it was an accident, but then I liked it a lot. So I’m gonna start a major series afterward with more handstitched horizon lines on it.
The Tartan: How do you get all these materials? Do you have to buy them, or do you get a budget from the school to get stuff?
Sophie Chao: For some projects, they reimburse me for materials, and then for projects I got a grant from the school.
The Tartan: How many of your ideas do you think you follow through with to their conclusions?
Sophie Chao: When I get an idea, I think about it for a while, and I do collaging to try and look at it from a different angle. So personally, when I have an idea, I usually see it to the end, but it’s also possible that I’ll sit on it for a very long time because most of my work takes a couple of months to finish, so while I’m working on one I’m also thinking about the next one.
The Tartan: [Pointing to a photo of Tim Lincecum] Are you doing a baseball piece?
Sophie Chao: I had a day I was thinking about it, I was just like, I love the Giants.
The Tartan: So you just put your inspiration on the wall?
Sophie Chao: Yes, or things people give me, like that baby with the ears [readers are free to imagine this one], or that collage on the wall that my friend made me.
The Tartan: Looking at all the art you do, do you have something that’s your primary focus?
Sophie Chao: I’m a textile and oil paint artist. I consider myself more in the realm of textiles than painting, simply because I feel more confident in textiles.
The Tartan: With your humanities focus, are there any good non-art classes you took here?
Sophie Chao: I took a lot of concrete education. American history. Felt. I’m currently taking this class in iDEATE called Inflatables.
The Tartan: How do you feel about the Jeff Koons fake inflatable stuff?
Sophie Chao: I know Koons is controversial but I think they’re great. His work is super commercialized in an interesting way, and he’s stated that his work is kitsch for the sake of being kitsch.
The Tartan: So do you feel like the commercialization is part of the art?
Sophie Chao: I think his work is only art because it’s commercialized. When you look at his sculpture, the fact that it’s worth so much money is part of it.
The Tartan: Do you feel like you have other controversial takes on art?
Sophie Chao: I like these certain commercialist artists, not because I admire what they’re doing, but because it’s interesting within the cultural conversation.
The Tartan: Okay, so you’re an artist. Your sister is also an artist. Have you guys known your whole life that that’s what you wanted to do?
Sophie Chao: I have. I can’t speak for my sister, but I think she has. My family’s pretty creative. Both of my grandparents immigrated from Korea to America to go to art school. My grandpa was a graphic designer, so they raised my mom and my uncle very artistically. My mom went to art school, and my uncle is a ceramicist right now, so yeah, my family views art as a very legit career path to go into. My dad also studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, so they’ve always been very encouraging.
The Tartan: Is George Harrison your favorite Beatle?
Sophie Chao: He had the best solo career. If you look at careers post Beatles, Wings is bad, and John Lennon had a few hits, but George Harrison was the best.
The Tartan: Do you have anything else that you want to say?
Sophie Chao: Yeah! For the poster of the show, that’s a picture of Yoko Ono, it’s not me. But a lot of people thought it was me, because we have the same hair, I guess. Maybe I should have put a caption because everyone was like, “That’s a brave choice,” but it’s not me!
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