Ari Salka
Artist
Ari Salka (Set Design) is an artist working primarily working through painting, drawing, and poetry. Salka holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA in Painting from UCLA. Salka studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in Norfolk, CT. Salka’s work is featured in libraries and collections, including the LACA, the UCLA Arts Library, and the ROSA KWIR Archive in Mosta, Malta.
Articles
Blog
Painting as Language: Building the Set for Dis-order
Artist and Reboot Network Member Ari Salka created the set design for the performance piece, Dis-order, which premiered at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in 2026. A reimagining of the Passover Seder, the piece asks what forces move through us when we enact an ancient spring rite, and what is left unspoken when we gather around the table. The audience is seated around the periphery of a large, hollow triangular table, reminiscent of Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” The tablecloth by Salka forms the setting for an evolving installation and transforms the ritual dinner table into the visual and psychological core of the performance. Dis-order examines and pulls apart the traditions that we take for granted as part of the Passover ritual. Read more about Salka’s process.