Chen Li was born in China in the province of the Zhejiang in the 1972. In 1987 she attended the Scuola del Castello Sforzesco in Milan studying illustration. 
In 1998 she graduated from Polytechnic in Turin in Techniques and Arts of the press with highest honors. From 1995 to 2005, she studied calligraphy with the best calligraphers of international fame. Conclusive experiences to her formation were the international artistic residences in Holland, Finland, United States, Germany, France, Italy and Romania.
Chen Li's first exhibition was in 1998 "La danza dei segni" (The dance of signs) at Libreria Fontana's Gallery in Turin.
She has exhibited on numerous occasions (27 times in solo exhibitions: Italy, Holland, United States) her works both in Italy as well as in foreign countries: Fondazione Prada Milan in 2018, and in 2017, Triennial Bovisa in Milan in 2010, 54a Biennale exhibition in Venice in Turin in 2011; in France in 2014, 2015 and 2016; in Holland in 2009, 2010 and 2011; in Boston, United States in 2009; in Germany in 2011, 2012 and 2013; and in Finland in 2010. (70 times in group exhibitions: in Italy, Mongolia, Holland, Finland, Germany, France and Romania).
In 2017 Chen Li wrote the title sequence for the film "Call me by your name" by Luca Guadagnino in English and Italian version.