Daniel Li
b. 1987 ∙ CE artist
Situated at the bottom right-hand edge of the paper, about to roll out of view, is a line drawing of a tractor trailer. Rotate the sheet 180 degrees and there is another rendering of a large vehicle aligned at the same edge, ready to vanish into the world. Spin the paper again and you are back where you began, inside the revolving artistic vision of Daniel Li.
Li’s practice consists entirely of drawing forms of transportation, specifically those that transport goods and people: buses, tow trucks, garbage trucks, etc. Li prefers ball point pen, a humble medium, and uses it to elevate the often over-looked vehicles that keep people and products moving through the world. On each sheet he draws a truck along the bottom edge, then another one upside down along the top edge, leaving the middle of the sheet empty. In a perfect blend of form and content, his use of space and the rotation required to view the mirrored drawing mimic the rolling tires that the trucks sit on. Li is consistently cheerful and very punctual, just like a delivery, or bus ride, should be.
Select Exhibitions & Projects
2020
Monument, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
2017
Black White, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2016
Fonds Duvel Moortgat, MADmusée , Liège, Belgium
2014
Bookworks: Text and Art from the CE Archives, SF Public Library Main Branch, San Francisco, CA
2012
Are We There Yet?, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA