Essere come noi (being like us) Collage

Chen Li started as a calligrapher in 1994 for more than 20 years until 2015. Calligraphy for Chen Li is learning formal scripts and history of writing from all over the world. She is interested especially in Western formal scripts and Chinese writing. Her main interest becomes sign, as a microcosm, the starting point for any artistic work. The sign itself becomes the trademark of Chen Li and a recurrent element of her works. After about 10 years as a calligrapher and as a graphic designer, Chen Li reached her personal style: western calligraphy using the approach of oriental calligraphy: formal beauty that becomes one with the meaning, with particular regard to a contemporary vision. The "Happiness" series was born. The sign plays with all the traditional and technological media, to tell the current era without any critical intent. Through travels in various parts of the world and working with artists and personalities from fashion, industry, advertising, Chen Li found new expressive ways lost in folds of "mainstream" territories.