Sophia Chai was born in Busan, South Korea. With her most recent body of studio-made photographs, Chai references the phonetic alphabet of Korean, her mother tongue, and enacts three key ideas of language, optics, and photography. Chai has presented her work widely at sites including Luhring Augustine Gallery, the A.I.R. Gallery, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Knockdown Center, Marinaro Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Hyde Park Art Center, among others. Solo exhibitions include 106 Green Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (2016), Rochester Art Center in Minnesota (2020), Hair+Nails Gallery in Minneapolis (2020, 2023) and Light Work in Syracuse, NY (2024). Chai has received financial support from the Jerome Foundation (2019-2020), Minnesota State Arts Board (2020, 2022, and 2023), and Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2019). Recent press includes Artforum, MUSEÉ Magazine, and Document Journal. The City of Rochester and Destination Medical Center commissioned her first permanent public outdoor project, completed this past summer. Chai is a recipient of a 2024/25 McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, funded by The McKnight Foundation and administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She received her BA in chemistry from the University of Chicago and earned her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Chai is represented by Hair+Nails Gallery in Minneapolis. She is based in Rochester, MN.