About Me
Dr. Sophia Quach McCabe is a curator, art historian, and consultant based in Los Angeles. With expertise across Renaissance and contemporary art, McCabe bridges cultures, time, and geographies in her work.
From 2024 - 2026, McCabe expanded the story of art and artists at The Huntington, where she curated Albrecht Dürer: Wanderlust and presented “A Journey of Global Ceramics at The Huntington: Jingdezhen Export Porcelain, Tang to Ming Dynasties.” As Curatorial Research Associate of American Art, McCabe supported the reinstallation of seven galleries, and amplified Asian American art and artists through tours and social media. She continues to bridge western and eastern art practices with exhibitions, talks, and programming, recently organizing and moderating Rauschenberg and ROCI in Asia, with generous support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Previously, McCabe curated exhibitions promoting the work of women artists at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara, with such exhibitions as Harmonia Rosales: Entwined, Sandy Rodriguez - Unfolding Histories: 200 Years of Resistance, and Momentary Stillness.
McCabe’s exhibitions presenting multicultural voices and exchanges in Asian American art include Natura Naturata / Natura Naturans, Alan Chin: Palimpsests, and Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art.
Dr. McCabe holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A former Fulbright Fellow, she continues developing and promoting cultural exchanges in her exhibitions, writings, and collaborations with artists, collectors, museums, and galleries.
Press, Publications, Talks
Press
Curate LA featuring Alan Chin: Palimpsests (2026)
Publications
Articles / Essays
“Renaissance Techniques and Contemporary Experimentations.” In Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative, by Patricia Lee Daigle (London/Memphis: Paul Holberton Publishing/Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 2023), 27–30.
“Courtly Splendor and Confessionalization: Hans Rottenhammer and the Transcultural Style.” In Ekphrasis und Residenz – Höfische Kultur und das Medium des Reiseberichts im Zeitalter der Konfessionalisierung um 1600, eds. M. Wenzel, W. Augustyn, A. Tacke (Petersberg, Germany: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2023), 147–158.
"Many Hands, Many Lands: Collaborative Copper Painting by Hans Rottenhammer, Paul Bril, and Jan Brueghel I.” In Many Antwerp Hands: Collaborations in Netherlandish Art, eds. A. D. Newman and L. Nijkamp (London/Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers/Brepols Publishers, 2021), 93–111.
“Intermediaries and the Market: Hans Rottenhammer’s Use of Networks in the Copper Painting Market.” In C. Rasterhoff and S. van Ginhoven, eds., Art Markets and Digital Histories (Basel: MDPI, 2020), pp. 21–41. First published in Arts 8.2.75 (2019): 1–21.
“Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns,” review of Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns presented at British Museum, London, September 10–December 6, 2015. Art Inquiries 17.1 (2016): 85–89.
Exhibition Catalogues
Sandy Rodriguez—Unfolding Histories: 200 Years of Resistance. Santa Barbara, CA: Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2023. Editor.
Online
“Wanderlust with Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer.” The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens Verso blog (July 9, 2024), https://www.huntington.org/verso/albrecht-durer-and-significance-artist-networks
“Sonia Delaunay / Art, Fashion, Life.” Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara blog (April 18, 2022), https://adamuseum.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/sonia-delaunay-art-fashion-life/
Talks & Events
Artist Conversation with Alan Chin, AMPHI Gallery, May 23, 2026
Rauschenberg and ROCI in Asia, The Huntington, May 19, 2026
“Chiura Obata’s Watercolor to Woodblock,” IFPDA Foundation Curatorial Summit, Park Ave Armory, New York, April 9, 2026
“Migrant artists, landscapes, and still lifes in the service of Dutch colonial capitalism,” Historians of Netherlandish Art Panel, Renaissance Society of America, San Francisco, February 21, 2026.
“A Journey of Global Ceramics at The Huntington: Jingdezhen Export Porcelain, Tang to Ming Dynasties,” The Huntington, Society of Fellows Forum, January 28, 2026
“Histories and Afterlives of Renaissance Collections,” Sixteenth Century Society Conference, Portland, OR, October 30, 2025. Organizer.
“Istoria and Landscape: The Balancing Act of the Ergon and Parergon,” Renaissance Society of America, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 10, 2023