San Diego artist creates work from Chinese heritage and mythology to imagine a future of joy

Jon Chen is a multidisciplinary artist from San Diego who’s spent a chunk of this year working on a piece based in their Chinese heritage and culture, that also explores digital and physical realities, sound, and imagining the future.

“As someone who grew up in San Diego and has been dreaming about an opportunity to work as an Asian American artist within the context of being San Diegan, I just found (the AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship) and ended up applying,” they said. “The prompt for this year, about ancient futures, was something that I felt really aligned with my artistic practice, both viewing technology as this means of openness, and also the potentiality of what technology can align us toward, but also grounding itself in ancient and traditional practices.”

Viet Voices’ AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship is a program run by artists for Asian American and Pacific Islander artists who are early in their careers, providing mentorship, workshops, networking, discussions, a $3,000 stipend, and a culminating exhibition, “PROPHECY: Joy Futurism In A World Renewing.” This exhibition, which continues through Friday at The Front in San Ysidro, features the work of the artists who are part of the 2025 fall/winter cycle—Chen, Sebastian Loo, Rino Kodama, and Jenn Ban.

Chen, 26, lives in Golden Hill a...