Ding Yi Survey to Show at Château La Coste

The exhibition will be held in an auditorium designed by Oscar Niemeyer among vineyards in the south of France.

Ding Yi, the Chinese artist known for layered cross patterns, will exhibit works at Château La Coste, an art-affiliated vineyard in Aix-en-Provence, this summer.

Held in the Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium, the late Brazilian architect's final project, Prediction and Retrospection (3 July–16 September 2024) will trace four decades of Ding's output across 30 works, including paintings on canvas, wood, and paper.

'It was immediately apparent to me that this gallery could create new possibilities between painting and space, Ding said. 'With its curved glass walls, the Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium is strong, open, and transparent, and allows the surrounding natural landscape to be brought in.'

Every year, Château La Coste invites artists and architects to conceive work on-site. The vineyard, which boasts some 40 outdoor installations and five gallery spaces across its 500, has hosted exhibitions by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Anselm Kiefer, and Tracey Emin.

Ding, who was born in Shanghai in 1962, witnessed the spread of Communist propaganda and its socialist realist style during the Cultural Revolution. In response, he devised a non-representational system, comprising geometric crosses rendered as '+'s and 'x's, to denote rationality and structure.

Seeking to paint beyond ideology, Ding, whose influences include Western modernists such as Piet Mondrian and Frank Stella, adopted this signature style reminiscent of contemporary QR codes, to present what he called 'an ultimate impression of abstraction.'

Detached from representation, meaning, and emotion, the artist describes his work rather as a 'representation of the spirit'.

'Expect nothing short of a transcendent journey through the labyrinth of visual language, where every brushstroke resonates with the echoes of cultural memory and contemporary resonance,' said curator Alfredo Cramerotti in a statement.

Ding recently joined Lisson Gallery, who co-represent the artist along with ShanghART, Galerie Karsten Greve, Timothy Taylor, and GALERÍA RGR. —[O]