Ari Salomon is a San Francisco–based artist working across photography, sculpture, and installation.
His work explores the boundary between the seen and the sensed, using photographic images as a starting point for material transformation. Across projects, he investigates perception, memory, and shared experience, often translating images into physical forms that evolve through process, time, and intervention.
While his series vary widely in appearance, they are connected by an ongoing inquiry into how images shape understanding—and where that understanding breaks down. Recent work expands photography beyond the frame into object and artifact, where images are altered through engraving, burning, and other physical processes that reflect themes of fragility, distance, and transformation.
Recent projects include Burn Line, a series of pyrotype works created in collaboration with wildfire survivors, and 6 Feet Apart, a typology of pandemic-era markers that examines how space defines human experience.
Salomon has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Kyotographie festival in Kyoto and presentations at Head On Photo Festival in Sydney and Transmission Gallery in San Francisco.
His work has also been included in group exhibitions at Minnesota Street Project (curated by Sandra Philips), the Marin Art and Garden Center (Curated by Trisha Lagaso Goldberg), and the Harvey Milk Photo Center (curated by Heather Snider), among others.
Born in Israel and raised in San Diego, Salomon developed an early interest in photography before earning a B.A. in Art History from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he focused on contemporary art theory and photography, inspired by great professors such as Victor Burgin and Geoffrey Batchen
His early career included recognition through exhibitions such as Hey Hot Shot! at Jen Bekman Gallery and EMERGE at Gen Art, as well as a solo exhibition of panoramic works at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery.
In 2010, he created a large-scale lightbox installation for the SFMOMA Minna Street windows, and his Motion Studies series has since been exhibited in San Francisco and Kyoto.
Salomon has participated in numerous portfolio reviews, including Review Santa Fe, FotoFest Houston, Photo Lucida, and PhotoAlliance in San Francisco.
He is an active member of the Bay Area Photographers Collective, contributing to exhibitions and community initiatives for over 15 years.
He maintains an ongoing connection to Japan, where he frequently develops new work and has exhibited at Photo Yokohama and in Kyoto as part of the KG+ program.
He has been represented by The SFMOMA Artists Gallery and PHOTO Oakland.
In addition to his studio practice, Salomon works as a graphic designer and WordPress developer, building websites for artists and cultural organizations.
