Ari Salka (b. Seattle, WA 1993) is a Los Angeles-based artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, and poetry. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and an MFA in Painting from UCLA (2019). Salka was awarded the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art’s Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in Norfolk, CT (2015). Ari Salka’s work has been featured in exhibitions at venues such as Ruscha & Co, BozoMag, Lauren Powell Projects, Maison Lune, Euclid Gallery, MOCA, The Torrance Art Museum, and The Skirball Cultural Center. He has also lectured as a visiting artist at UCLA, Chapman University, and Bennington College.In Ari Salka: On Bodies (Be)held Trans Rights are Under Siege; This Artist Resists, Julie Schulte writes in Artillery Magazine (September 2020), stating that Salka’s paintings “resist; not only by showing us non-binary bodies, but hands prepared to reach out and lead us beyond the present political limitations, into a realm where these bodies are not withheld from view, not merely visible, but beheld and, most importantly, in their dynamic, breathing, singing, multitudinous forms—held.” Salka’s work is in the permanent collections of the John M. Flaxman Library, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), UCLA Arts Library, and the ROSA KWIR Archive in Mosta, Malta. His artist book is currently available for purchase at MOCA through their website, and he looks forward to an upcoming solo museum exhibition at XELA Art in 2027, along with other projects. His forthcoming poetry book is expected to be published in 2026.