DING SHILUN

Ding’s work has been shown with Bernheim Gallery in Zurich and London, in institutional exhibitions such as Janus at ICA Miami, and Song Art Museum in Beijing announced a major solo exhibition for 2026.

Early life and Education of Ding Shilun

Ding Shilun was born in 1998 in Guangzhou, a large city in southern China, and his experience of dense urban life and rapidly changing environments underpins the crowded, theatrical atmospheres of his paintings. He studied Painting at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, completing his BA in 2020, and participated in an exchange at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he deepened his engagement with European painting traditions.

In 2022, Ding completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London, a period that helped crystallise his language of elongated figures, layered perspectives and ink-like oil paint. He now maintains a studio practice between Guangzhou and London, working closely with Bernheim Gallery and exhibiting with contemporary art galleries and institutions across Europe, China, Australia and the United States.

Ding Shilun Artworks and Style

Ding Shilun artworks are multivalent narrative paintings grounded in magical realism, populated by beguiling figures who move through fantastical yet strangely recognisable worlds. Blending traditional Chinese painterly techniques with illustration, manga and cinematic staging, he constructs images that feel like stills from an unfolding ‘personal fable’ rather than straightforward allegories.

A defining idea in Ding’s practice is the construction of his own mythology, in which every character can be read as a projection or avatar of the artist. He draws on sources ranging from Chinese legends collected in In Search of the Supernatural to Nuo opera, Goya’s Los caprichos, fashion imagery and anime, allowing spirits, gods, historical figures and club-goers to occupy the same pictorial stage. The paintings are not literal illustrations of these stories; instead, they transform ‘indescribable emotions’ into figures and scenes that hint at fear, desire, confusion and humour at once.

Technically, Ding dilutes oil paint with solvent until it behaves like ink on paper, building many thin, translucent layers that create a tension between precision and haze. Surfaces can resemble watercolour, with coexisting perspectives and abrupt shifts in scale that blur any fixed distinction between real and surreal. This approach demands intense concentration—mistakes cannot be wiped away—so each canvas evolves gradually, like a puzzle assembled without a guiding picture.

Thematically, Ding’s work circles around identity, self-preservation and the feeling of living inside systems larger than oneself. In texts for Janus, he describes his protagonists as embodiments of his own inner life, negotiating different cultures and ideologies while trying to construct a reality they can live with. Many paintings feature doubled faces, masked figures or reversible scenes, echoing the Roman god Janus and suggesting that every moment contains multiple directions, beginnings and endings.

Ding’s imagery is often darkly humorous, combining camp, fashion and horror-movie tension. Works such as Hunter’s Whistle (2024) show a corseted figure with flowers and tomatoes in their headdress, a crossbow at the waist and a skull in a basket, a ‘peaceful but quite scary’ portrait that captures his taste for beauty laced with menace. In other paintings, thieves dressed like Cookie Monster or the Hamburglar, a Ghost Rider-like biker on a flaming motorbike, Cinderella’s carriage and anime-style heroes jostle with market crowds and dinner guests, turning everyday scenes into contemporary history paintings.

In Spectres in Rehearsal, his 2026 exhibition at Bernheim in Zurich, Ding positions himself as a master puppeteer directing an ensemble of extraordinary characters from beneath the stage. Across four large canvases, he uses theatrical and historical imagery to paint what has been described as a ‘Human Comedy’ for the 21st century, where violent, universal and deeply human forces of survival sit beneath spectacle and caricature. The show leads directly into his solo exhibition at Song Art Museum in Beijing, extending these ideas into a museum-scale reflection on how myth and history shape contemporary consciousness.

Awards and honours of Ding Shilun

• 2024, Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art artist commission, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
• 2023, selection for Zabludowicz Collection Invites programme, London, United Kingdom.
• 2022, featured graduate of the Royal College of Art degree show, London, United Kingdom.

Exhibitions of Ding Shilun

Ding Shilun has developed a rapidly growing institutional and gallery presence, with solo exhibitions at Bernheim and ICA Miami and group shows in China, Europe, Australia and North America. His paintings have entered public collections including ICA Miami, Guangdong Museum of Art and major museums in Europe and the United States.

Select solo exhibitions

• 2026, Spectres in Rehearsal, Bernheim Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland.
• 2026, Solo exhibition, Song Art Museum, Beijing, China.
• 2024–2025, Janus, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, United States.miamiandbeaches+1
• 2024, Mirage, Bernheim Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
• 2023, Invites: Ding Shilun, Zabludowicz Collection, London, United Kingdom.
• 2022, Paradiso, Bernheim Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland.

Select group exhibitions

• 2024, Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art exhibition, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
• 2024, presentations during Miami Art Week at ICA Miami, Miami, United States.
• 2024, exhibitions at Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China.
• 2023, group exhibition, Kunsthal NORD, Aalborg, Denmark.
• 2022, Royal College of Art graduate exhibitions, London, United Kingdom.

Website, Instagram, and further reading

Artist’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/ding_shilun

For further reading on Ding Shilun’s practice and key works, see the Bernheim Gallery artist overview and Spectres in Rehearsal exhibition text, the Janus exhibition page at ICA Miami, the Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art profile, the TWO x TWO catalogue essay and Alex Hawgood’s interview ‘Artist Ding Shilun Makes His Own Mythology’ in W Magazine. View exhibitions featuring Ding Shilun on Ocula when available.

About this profile

This profile of Ding Shilun was commissioned for Ocula by Anna Dickie drawing on verified sources including museum and contemporary art gallery publications, institutional exhibition materials and major art media coverage.

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Ocula | 2026