BIO
Ashton Li is an emerging digital artist born and raised in San Francisco, California. He is currently studying at San José State University for his BFA in Digital Media Art. He works primarily at the intersection of image manipulation, video editing, 3D modeling, and rendering. His upcoming Spring 2024 BFA Digital Media Arts Group Exhibition will be held at the Hammer Theatre, in San José .
ARTIST STATEMENT
I work in Adobe Photoshop because it allows me to modify and combine images of objects according to my own and other’s dreams—especially dreams that are beyond our means. If I can’t do it in real life, I can do so digitally— limited only by my imagination and technical ability. I enjoy how my process allows me to explore modifications and other ideas that would be difficult to conceive of or attain in the physical world. My digital media art draws mainly upon photography and image manipulation—typically of cars and the plausible futuristic characters that drive them. I often work solely off of found imagery from the internet, but I also work with my own photographs. A lot of my pieces are based on my ideal vision of a car—how I would modify a car to look if money and time were no object. As my own vision, ideas, skillset, and what exists in reality change, so does my work.
CV
Education:
2024 BFA in Digital Media Art, San Jose State University (SJSU), San Jose, CA
2020 Digital Media Design Academy, Abraham Lincoln High School, San Francisco, CA
Group Exhibitions:
2024 BFA Digital Media Art Group Show, Hammer Theatre, SJSU, San Jose, CA (pending)
2023 Hidden Life of Water, Herbert Sanders Gallery, SJSU, San Jose, CA
2023 Superlative Sites, Student Gallery 5, SJSU, San Jose, CA
2022 Medals of Dishonor, Art Building Case D3, SJSU, San Jose, CA
Professional Experience:
2019 Graphic Design Intern at Okta Inc., San Francisco, CA