Ding yi
Ding Yi is a key figure in Chinese geometric abstraction. In 1988, he established his ongoing Appearance of Crosses series, using the cross (+, ×) as his sole pictorial element. Through additive (layering, juxtaposition) and subtractive (scraping, revealing) processes, he developed a painting system detached from figurative narrative—one that explores variations in urban experience, material language, and modes of seeing.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
• 2024, Prediction and Retrospection, Château La Coste, Provence (touring to Mostyn, UK).
• 2022, Stars Crossed, ShanghART Gallery, Singapore.
• 2022, Anomalous Galaxies, Galeria RGR, Mexico City.
• 2019, Grids, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris.
• 2018, Interchange, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai.
• 2017, Appearance of Crosses, Timothy Taylor, New York.
• 2015, Ivory Black, ShanghART Gallery, Singapore.
• 2014, Scintillement, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris.
• 2012, Appearance of Crosses, Galerie Karsten Greve, St. Moritz.
• 2006, Graticule: Ding Yi’s Works from 1989–2006, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai.
• 1996, 15×Red, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai.
Selected Group Exhibitions
• 2023, China – Arte Contemporanea, Palazzo Reale, Milan.
• 2021, Highlight, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne / Paris / St. Moritz.
• 2020, The Abstraction(s), Power Station of Art, Shanghai.
• 2019, Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.
• 2016, Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• 2014, 15 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Long Museum, Shanghai.
• 2008, China Gold, Maillol Museum, Paris.
Selected Public Collections
• Power Station of Art (PSA), Shanghai, China
• Long Museum, Shanghai, China
• M+, Hong Kong
• National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
• Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
• Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
• The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), USA
• Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
• Sigg Collection, Switzerland
• Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland