Ding Yi (b. 1962) was born and currently resides in Shanghai. He graduated from Shanghai Arts & Crafts Institute in 1983 and graduated from Shanghai University with B.F.A. in 1990. The practice of Ding Yi encompasses painting, sculpture, spatial installation and architecture. He works primarily with "+" and its variant "x" as formal visual signals, above and against the political and social allegories typical of painting in China. He chose this sign in the second half of the 80s as a synonym of structure, rationality and of a pictorial expressiveness that reflects the essence of things.

The simplicity of compositional structure contrasts with the use of a wide variety of materials and of colors that range from almost monochrome tones to the very bright and fluorescent. For the artist these are a record on canvas of the excesses, noise, chaos and confusion but also the stimuli and styles of the city of Shanghai, with which his work is inextricably bound up.

Ding Yi has exhibited extensively at various institutions and galleries, among many others, "Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World" (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York/Bilbao, 2017-2018); "Last Night's Fortune Teller: The Third Part of an Exhibition Series with New Acquisitions of Chinese and International Contemporary Art" (Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, 2017); "Une histoire: art, architecture, design des années 1980 à nos jours" (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2015); "China 8 Contemporary Art from China at the Rhine and Ruhr" (Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, 2015); "Verso Est, Chinese Architectural Landscape" (Museo Nazionale Delle Arti Del XXI Secolo MAXXI, Rome, 2011); "Shanghai" (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2010); "85 New Wave, The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art" (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2007); "Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection" (Bern, Hamburger, Barcelona, etc. 2005-2009); "Living in Time, 29 Contemporary Artists from China" (Hamburger Bahkhof Museum Für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2001). His works has also been included in 45th Venice Biennale (1993), The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1993), 11th Biennale of Sydney (1998), Yokohama 2001 International Triennale of Contemporary Art (2001), 6th Shanghai Biennale (2006), 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), 6th Busan Biennale (2016).

11.23 Studio visit and onsite discussion

He has recent solo exhibitions at Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou, 2018),ShanghART Gallery (Shanghai, 2018), Xi'an Art Museum (Xi'an, 2017), Timothy Taylor Gallery (London/New York, 2017), Hubei Museum of Art (Wuhan, 2016), Long Museum (West Bund) (Shanghai, 2015), ShanghART Gallery (Singapore, 2015/ Shanghai, 2006), Galerie Karsten Greve (Paris, 2014/ St.Moritz, 2012/ Cologne, 2008), Minsheng Art Museum(Shanghai, 2011), Museo d'Arte Modena di Bologna (Bologna, 2008), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2005).