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23/11/25

Val Lee @ Hayward Gallery, London - 'The Presence of Solitude' Exhibition

Val Lee

The Presence of Solitude

Hayward Gallery, London

Through 11 January 2026

Val Lee

Buenos días mujeres (2019)

Photo by Yollotl Alvarado, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

Charting the Contours of Time (2023)

Photo by Takuya Matsumi, courtesy the artist

The Hayward Gallery, in partnership with the RC Foundation, Taiwan (R.O.C.) [*], presents Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude. This is the first solo exhibition in the UK by Taiwanese artist Val Lee and the fourth exhibition in the RC Foundation Project Space Exhibition Series, which showcases the next generation of emerging international artists.

Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude takes place in the HENI Project Space in the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery – a space that offers the opportunity for audiences to see exhibitions from emerging international artists for free.

Val Lee

The Landless Events (2022)

Photo by Chen Etang, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

The Landless Events (2022)

Photo by Chen Etang, courtesy the artist

Bringing together film, photography and costume, the exhibition highlights Lee’s longstanding exploration of isolation and solitude. By creating disjointed and ambiguous narratives with unidentifiable figures, her work makes viewers feel as though time and meaning have been displaced. This feeling of alienation encourages us to think about how our personal experiences and collective memories are shaped by state and political systems.

The exhibition features new iterations of two existing works: Valley in the Minibus (2024) and The Sorrowful Football Team (2025). Valley in the Minibus explores the concept of ‘non-places’, defined by French anthropologist Marc Augé as transitory spaces that people pass through (such as airports, motorways, shopping centres) and become anonymous. Building on the original work and live event that took place over several weekends, a group of strangers travel through a winding landscape in a van with a creature-like masked and costumed figure. A new video commission introduces the same masked figure DJing completely alone in an anonymous space. Three full body, long haired costumes and veiled masks used in the work are on display as part of the installation. Present but disconnected from the audience, the presentation highlights the artist's interest in creating connections and intimacies through isolated experiences.

Val Lee

Valley of the Minibus (2025)

Photo by Pitzu Liu, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

Valley of the Minibus (2025)

Photo by Pitzu Liu, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

Valley of the Minibus (2025)

Photo by Pitzu Liu, courtesy the artist

Reimagined for the exhibition as a slide projection, The Sorrowful Football Team (2025) depicts a blind football team playing a match in the snow in Northern Japan. Blind football is an organised sport designed for players who are blind or visually impaired. Here, Lee utilises it as a metaphor to reflect on the impact of political repression experienced under the White Terror rule in Taiwan between 1947-1987 as well as the possibility of finding light in solitary darkness.

Val Lee

The Sorrowful Football Team (2025)

Courtesy the artist

Val Lee

Valley of the Minibus (2025)

Photo by Pitzu Liu, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

Valley of the Minibus (2025)

Photo by Pitzu Liu, courtesy the artist

Val Lee

The Sorrowful Football Team (2025)

Courtesy the artist

Yung Ma, Senior Curator of the Hayward Gallery, says: “Straddling visual and live art, Val Lee has embraced different principles to forge an artistic language that invokes various experiences, past and present. While the exhibition explores the deeply felt presence of solitude in her recent works, it is ultimately a hopeful gesture about finding connections in the most unexpected places.”

Val Lee says: "Presenting this work at Hayward Gallery allows me to further explore ambiguous fields—where collectivity is not given, but quietly rehearsed in the blank spaces of perception. I’m glad to share this piece in London at Hayward Gallery - where form, time, and relation can stay in flux."

Previous artists who have exhibited in the HENI Project Space include Huang Po-Chih, Heecheon Kim, Amol K Patil, Thabiso Sekgala and Hicham Berrada. The exhibition marks the fourth iteration of The RC Foundation Project Space Exhibition Series and makes up an important part of the Southbank Centre’s vast array of free programming for all to enjoy.

Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude is curated by Hayward Gallery Senior Curator, Yung Ma, and Curatorial Assistant, Felix Choong. Additional support provided by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (R.O.C.).

Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude is presented alongside Gilbert & George 21ST CENTURY PICTURES at the Hayward Gallery, as well as Teresa Solar Abboud’s Mother Tongue: a monumental new public art commission, outside the gallery.

Artist Val Lee

Val Lee (b. 1981, Taipei) is a director and visual artist working across expanded cinema, performance, and moving image. Trained in Filmmaking and Sociology at SUNY, Lee founded the art collective Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel in 2008. Their work constructs temporal scenarios that reframe space, spectatorship, and perception, often exploring systemic violence, war, and affective states through nonlinear, disorienting environments. Lee’s works have been shown internationally including the 13th Gwangju Biennale, Grand Palais, HKW Berlin, MEP, MOCA Taipei, and others, with performances at TFAM, Kyoto Art Center, and the Taiwan National Theater. Honours include the Taishin Arts Award in 2017 and support from the Asian Cultural Council and C-LAB.

RC Foundation, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Founded in 1995 by Rong Chuan Chen, RC Foundation has been a visionary force in promoting Taiwanese contemporary art on the global stage. An active champion in fostering cultural and artistic exchanges, RC Foundation has been supporting artists, curators and independent art spaces from Taiwan through grants and partnerships, both locally and internationally. These long-term relationships have nurtured and enriched numerous artistic projects from different perspectives, generating invaluable connections between Taiwan's contemporary art practitioners and their global counterparts.

HAYWARD GALLERY

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London

www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude

Hayward Gallery, London, 7 October 2025 - 11 January 2026

18/11/25

'Small is Beautiful' Exhibition @ Flowers Gallery, London + Online - 43rd Edition Featuring 140 Artists

Small is Beautiful - 43rd Edition

Flowers Gallery, London + Online

21 November 2025 - 10 January 2026

Katie Mawson (b. 1963)

Colour Narratives, 2025

Vintage book cloth, 18 x 18 cm

Alexandra Baraitser (b. 1971)

By Lamp Light, 2025

Oil on board, 21.5 x 18 cm

Adam Taylor (b. 1979)

Circle, two, 2025

Oil on panel, 22.5 x 17 cm

Flowers Gallery presents the 43rd edition of their renowned Small is Beautiful exhibition, taking place at the Cork Street gallery and online. Established in 1974, Small is Beautiful invites selected contemporary artists from all disciplines to contribute works with a fixed economy of size, each piece measuring no more than 7 x 9 inches.

Heidrun Rathgeb (b. 1967)

Cocoon, 2020

Egg tempura on gesso panel, 24 x 18 cm

Ayumi Matsuba (b. 1977)

Towards Home, 2025

Acrylic on canvas, 20.3 x 20.3 cm

Unskilled Worker

Milo wears his Crown, 2025

Gouache, pastel, pen, ink and charcoal

on Fabriano paper, 21 x 16 cm

An occasion for artists to explore scale in relation to their own practice, since its inception the exhibition has provided a rare opportunity to showcase smaller pieces by internationally-recognised names and discover new talents.

Here is a small selection of other works featured in this exhibition:

Maria Koshenkova

Faun's Flesh 02, 2016

Blown sculpted glass, hand polished, 14 x 21 x 14 cm

Sheila Vollmer

Pezzo, 2025

Wood found Piano keys, hinges, paint, 20 x 19 x 21 cm

Terence Wilde

Devine, 2020

Ceramic and mixed media, 19 x 14 x 9 cm

Sarah Longworth-West

After Endless, 2025

Oil paint, oil pastel and spray paint

on pigmented gesso panel, 23 x 18 cm

Monique Lovering

Fleeting, 2025

Mixed media, 23 x 18 cm

Kristin Schnell

Birds on Stage 13A, 2022-2023

Photography Hahnemühlen Photo Rag Paper, 21 x 16 cm

Sue Kennington

Split, 2025

Oil on linen, 18.4 x 15.2 cm

Pippa Young

Threads of history that cling to me, 2025

Oil on cradled panel, 18 x 12.5 cm

Jennifer McRae

Boy Fish Kite, 2025

Oil on linen, 22.9 x 17.8 cm

Karolina Albricht

As Day is Equal Night, 2025

Oil on panel, 16 x 12 cm

Gill Rocca

REALM XVI, 2025

Oil on birch ply, 11 x 16 cm

Small is Beautiful features approximately 140 artists, with notable inclusions from Olivia Bax, Ken Currie, Helen Downie (Unskilled Worker), Elger Esser, Nigel Hall, Maggi Hambling, Claerwen James, Laurence Noga, and Tai Shan Schierenberg, amongst many more.

FLOWERS GALLERY

21 Cork Street, London W1S 3LZ

www.flowersgallery.com

15/11/25

Hawaiʻi: a Kingdom Crossing Oceans Exhibition @ British Museum, London - A dazzling celebration of the rich artistry of Hawaiian makers

Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans

British Museum, London

15 January – 25 May 2026

A bold new exhibition at the British Museum examines the compelling history of Hawaiʻi and its long-standing ties with the United Kingdom. Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans is a dazzling celebration of the rich artistry of Hawaiian makers, past present and future, the global journeys of Hawaiian royals and leaders, and the enduring resonance of their story in today's world.

kapa (barkcloth)

Kapa (barkcloth) is made from the inner bark (bast) of the paper mulberry and other plant fibres. As a medium, kapa is a connector between the land, the people and the gods. Different forms of kapa had many uses, from everyday life to ritual practice, including as chiefly garments, spatial dividers, blankets and wrappings for bones.

The exhibition commemorates 200 years since a series of events including the visit of Hawaiian King Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Queen Kamāmalu to London with a royal delegation to seek alliance and protection from the Crown. This journey to the capital included a visit to the British Museum – the first record of Native Hawaiian aliʻi (chiefs and royals) at the Museum. Building from this moment, which marked a turning point in the shared history of the kingdoms of Hawaiʻi and the United Kingdom, the exhibition tells a compelling story of movement, allyship and cultural exchange.

Portrait of Kamehameha II and Portrait of Kamāmalu, 1824

Hand-coloured lithographs by John Hayter

These portraits realised by British court artist John Hayter represent Hawaiian King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu. They were made in London while the king, the queen, and a Hawaiian royal delegation accompanying them awaited an audience with George IV.

Settled around AD 1000 by skilled Polynesian seafarers navigating by the stars and following the flight of migratory birds, the Hawaiian archipelago is often remembered in the UK as the place where Captain James Cook lost his life during a voyage of exploration in the islands in 1778–79. Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans acknowledges this moment while focusing on movements, stories and voyages initiated from Hawaiʻi itself. Shaped together with Native Hawaiian knowledge-bearers, the exhibition introduces audiences to a remarkable and seldom-seen collection of early Hawaiian treasures combined with striking contemporary works, tracing the journeys that brought these works to London and reflecting on their continued meaning for the people of Hawaiʻi today.

ʻUmeke kiʻi (bowl with figure)

This bowl likely represents a chiefly person in a serving position. Their high status is indicated by their headdress and loincloth.

The exhibition features around 150 extraordinary objects and artworks including many never seen in the UK. Among the highlights is a magnificent ʻahu ʻula (feathered cloak) sent in 1810 by the first king of unified Hawaiʻi, Kamehameha I, to King George III, the largest known example of its kind. Lent by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection, the cloak will be on display for the first time in over 100 years, alongside the Hawaiian king's original letter requesting support and protection from the British Crown.

Kiʻi (image) of the god Kū

This kiʻi (image) represents Kū, a Hawaiian god whose realm includes warfare and governance. This god figure probably originates from a religious site on the island of Hawaiʻi, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It may have been brought to England about 200 years ago by Hawaiian king Liholiho (Kamehameha II), who came to London to seek alliance and protection from the British Crown. He stands here wearing a loincloth, which was made for him and fitted by Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners.

Opening the space and greeting the visitors on the stairs of the Great Court is a powerful, nine-foot kiʻi (image) of the god Kū, the god of warfare and governance, dressed with a contemporary loincloth and standing atop a pole rediscovered inside a historical plinth ahead of the exhibition. A finely carved drum accompanied by an ancient chant recounting early Polynesian migrations to Hawaiʻi pulls the visitors into the gallery. Inside, a stunning bowl with figure, recently returned from loan to Hawaiʻi's Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, embodies the continued movements of people and objects between the Pacific and the United Kingdom, while the Anglo-Franco proclamation of 1843, on loan from The National Archives, highlights the UK and France's formal recognition of Hawaiʻi's independence and emphasises diplomatic bonds between these nations.

The making of Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans is grounded in a renewed curatorial approach developed with Native Hawaiian knowledge-bearers. A co-stewarded process, the creation of the exhibition involved community partners in a holistic manner, from the shaping of the narrative to the design of the gallery, the meticulous conservation of ancestral treasures and the inclusion of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) throughout the space.

Kapulani Landgraf

ʻAuʻa, Portrait of Haunani-Kay Trask

Photographic print

ʻWe are not American’, declared Native Hawaiian political leader and scholar Haunani-Kay Trask (1949–2021). She was speaking on the hundredth anniversary of the 1893 coup that overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom. Trask is depicted here by the artist Kapulani Landgraf as part of a series of 108 photographic portraits of Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiians). As well as Trask’s famous declaration, Landgraf has added ‘He hawaiʻi au mau a mau’ (‘I am Hawaiian forever and ever’), a continuing affirmation of Hawaiian identity.

Building from years of collaborations through the Benioff Oceania Programme (2020-2024), the show highlights a commitment to transforming and humanising museum practice – a dimension that is made palpable through a trail of content that 'breaks the fourth wall' to offer visitors a glimpse into this collective process. As objects, people and voices gather in the space, the gallery becomes a meeting ground, bringing agency and purpose into view and showing how the stories on display were shaped – stories as relevant today as they were two centuries ago.

Dr Alice Christophe, Curator and Head of Oceania at the British Museum said: 'This co-stewarded exhibition is a tribute to Native Hawaiian makers, past and present. At its core, it tells the story of the deep and layered relationship between Hawaiʻi and the United Kingdom, reflecting on care, sovereignty and the complexity of allyship. We hope this show will spark conversations and uplift people in the archipelago and beyond.'

Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum commented: 'Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans embodies the Museum's commitment to working with communities to tell shared histories in new ways. This extraordinary exhibition not only reveals the beauty and significance of Hawaiian culture, but also highlights the journeys of people, objects and stories across time and oceans, showing how these connections continue to resonate and inspire today.'

BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery

www.britishmuseum.org

09/11/25

Nordic noir @ British Museum, London - Works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson

Nordic noir: Works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson

British Museum, London

9 October 2025 – 22 March 2026

Mamma Andersson

The Fallow Deer, 2016

Handprinted colour woodcut on rice paper

Reproduced by permission of the artist

Fatima Moallim

Källa, 2021

Marker pen, oil crayon and graphite

Reproduced by permission of the artist

Olafur Eliasson

Don't look to the horizon, 2024

Watercolour and glacial ice

Courtesy of the artist and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik

The British Museum presents around 150 works from 100 different artists in an exhibition celebrating graphic works on paper from the Nordic region.

Nordic noir: works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson is the culmination of a five-year programme dedicated to building the Museum's collection of post-war Nordic artwork.

Jennifer Ramkalawon, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Nordic Graphic Art said: 'This project was a five-year voyage of discovery. These countries have so much creativity to offer with contemporary artists exploring themes of nature, the environment, identity and heritage. The artists in the show are well-known in their home countries, but this exhibition aims to showcase the incredible array of talent from the Nordic lands to a wider UK and international audience – many of them are on display for the first time.'

John Savio

Suopan (Lasso), c.1928-1934

Woodcut

Henrik Finne

Fiskere, 1942

Colour woodcut

Reproduced by permission of the artist's estate

Showcasing one of the best collections of Nordic art outside the region, the exhibition aims to provide a welcome and stimulating insight into the distinctive art originating there.

Although Scandinavia is sometimes viewed by outsiders as a homogenous entity, the exhibition highlights individual characteristics and complexities within the various Nordic countries, as well as exploring universal and overarching themes. It also questions the definition of Nordic art and what it means to be a Nordic artist through work by artists who have immigrated to and emigrated from the region.

Edvard Munch

The Old Fisherman, 1897

Woodcut on Japan paper

One of the most well-known artists to emerge from Scandinavia is expressionist Edvard Munch. Two of Munch's woodcut prints are featured at the beginning of the exhibition. Following a chronological narrative, it explores how the graphic arts flourished and evolved after his death in 1944. Prints and drawings from 1945 to the present day highlight how the region's artists continue to develop Munch's creative legacy of emotional intensity and artistic inventiveness.

Lea Ignatius

Soutaja, 1981

Colour etching

Reproduced by permission of the artist's estate

Per Kirkeby

Untitled, 2016

Monotype in green, yellow and black ink

Reproduced by permission of the artist's estate

Vanessa Baird

My Mother, 2019

Watercolour

Reproduced by permission of the artist

Key themes throughout the exhibition are nature and the vital urgency to preserve the environment of the fjords, mountains and forests unique to the region. The artworks on display also delve into the worlds of Norse myth, inner struggles with mental health, post-war angst and the threat of the Cold War, feminism and the rights of the Indigenous Sámi people.

Yuichiro Sato

In the Air III, 2019

Graphite, mineral pigment, acrylic paint

Reproduced by permission of the artist

John Kørner

Understanding the Impact of Architecture 12, 2020

Colour lithograph

Reproduced by permission of the artist

Vibeke Slyngstad

Shuafat II, 2023

Watercolour

Reproduced by permission of the artist

The landmark collecting project, supported by a substantial grant from charitable organisation AKO Foundation, resulted in the acquisition by the British Museum of almost 400 works by artists from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It has added to the many Nordic prints purchased by the Museum in the 1990s.

As well as Edvard Munch and Mamma Andersson, featured artists include Olafur Eliasson, John Savio, Vanessa Baird, Yuichiro Sato, Fatima Moallim, John Kørner and many more.

Xerxes Mazda, Director of Collections said: 'It has been almost 30 years since the British Museum devoted a show to Nordic graphic art. Thanks to the generosity of AKO Foundation, we have been able to build one of the best collections of Nordic art outside the region, investing in and exploring how artists such as Mamma Andersson have developed the legacy of an artist like Edvard Munch. Nordic noir and the collecting strategy behind it showcases the British Museum's commitment to acquiring works for the nation, preserving the work of both up-and-coming and established artists for future generations.'

To coincide with the exhibition, a beautifully illustrated catalogue, Nordic noir: works on paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson, written by Jennifer Ramkalawon, was published by the British Museum Press in October 2025. Paperback, £35, ISBN 9780714136509

BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

www.britishmuseum.org

23/10/25

Ding Yi @ Lisson Gallery, London - 'The Road to Heaven' Exhibition

Ding Yi: The Road to Heaven

Lisson Gallery, London

Through 22 November 2025

For his inaugural solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery and his first return to exhibit in London in over five years, renowned Chinese abstractionist Ding Yi presents a new body of work. This latest series is deeply informed by the history and cosmology of the Naxi people of Yunnan in southwestern China, offering a rich cultural and conceptual dimension to his distinctive visual language. In line with his larger corpus, the artist’s latest drawings and paintings employ a systematic iconography in the service of a layered, subjective response – a continuous act of translation rather than a fixed text.

In 1988, while a student at Shanghai University, Ding Yi adopted the cross, either in the form of a ‘+’ or ‘x’ symbol, as a leitmotif. Initially arranging crosses in strict grids, he later developed complex geometric patterns in fluorescent colours, producing works that mirrored the architectural and economic explosion of Shanghai in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2011, Ding Yi has shifted toward a broader perspective, exploring themes of the cosmos, nature, and the universe, gradually moving beyond the strict rationality of his earlier work toward a more emotive and intuitive sensibility. Following his 2022 solo exhibition in Tibet, he began to engage more deeply with specific cultural and geographic contexts, with recent works reflecting a turn inward—toward spiritual reflection and contemplative states.

In 2024, following three research visits to Yunnan and in-depth conversations with scholars and Dongba priests, Ding Yi studied and internalised the texts and beliefs of the Dongba religion—an ancient tradition blending animism and Tibetan Buddhism. This belief system is preserved through sacred manuscripts composed in a unique pictographic script – the most significant and visually striking being The Road to Heaven. Used in funerary rituals, the long scroll depicts the soul’s symbolic passage from the earthly realm to the afterlife, and lends its title to this exhibition.

Drawing from the scroll’s visual and spiritual resonance, Ding Yi created a group of works executed on coarse-fibred Dongba paper using acrylic and water-soluble coloured pencil. These compositions reinterpret The Road to Heaven through his signature cross motif. The drawing transposes the Dongba writing system into a sequence of intricate schemes, each composed from a dense array of crosses. In this fusion of Dongba cosmology and his distinctive abstraction, Ding Yi invites viewers to perceive two worlds at once—entwined yet distinct in sensibility. Featured in the exhibition is The Road to Heaven 2024-B17, a four-panel work on Dongba paper. Each panel alludes to the transmigration of the soul through allegorical topographies: Nine Black Mountains, The Underworld, The Natural World, and Heaven.

The exhibition also features a suite of horizontal-format works on Dongba paper, continuing his iconic Appearance of Crosses series. For Ding Yi, works on paper hold a vital place in his practice, serving as both experimentation and refinement. In these, tiny crosses applied in various colours form mosaic-like compositions that oscillate between microcosmic and macrocosmic resonance. Blocks of dense black hatching – inset with constellatory motifs – echo the starry skies that have featured in Ding Yi’s works for two decades. Elsewhere, streaming blue diagonals conjure the two fundamental elements of life, according to the Naxi – ‘Qi’ (energy) and water, linking to the ‘Twenty-eight mansions’ of Naxi astrology: the nightly resting places of the moon.

A group of larger relief paintings, rendered in chiselled basswood, features tiered zigzags that evoke the sacred Hengduan mountains of Yunnan in the guise of psychedelic abstraction. Coloured diagonals offset the faint underlying grid, while bold geometry, as often in Ding Yi’s art, compresses a sense of the minute, the handmade and the contingent, reflected in the tiny carved compartments that constitute each painting.

Ding Yi defined the first two stages of his career in terms of ‘steadying’ (the cultivation of a formal language) and ‘overlooking’ (the application of that language to the rapidly evolving world around him). The third, ongoing stage is that of ‘looking up’ – of widening his horizons, both spatial and temporal, to the cosmos and its ancient conceptualisations. The mathematical construction of his works belies a deep interest in the idiosyncratic and irrational dimensions of human thought and cultural tradition. The cross itself – at once Modernist and pre-modern, personal and functional – encapsulates the beguiling duality of his art. As curator Cui Cancan has observed, the “Winding Path” of Ding Yi’s practice “has no terminus – it sways fiercely between the poles of locality and globalisation.” The series of work featured in this exhibition is also on view at Ding Yi: The Winding Path at Contemporary Gallery Kunming and Anthropology Museum of Yunnan University, China, until 9 November 2025.

Artist Ding Yi

A leading figure in Chinese contemporary art, Ding Yi works across painting, sculpture, installation, and architecture. Since the late 1980s, his signature motif—the cross “+” and its variant “x”—has served as a symbol of structure, rationality, and a visual language exploring the essence of being. Trained in both art and design, Ding Yi began experimenting with abstraction in 1982. During his student years, he developed a strong conviction about how to paint and what kind of artist he would become. Rejecting the Expressionism and Surrealism then prevalent in China, he chose a rational path “free from ideology.” Profoundly influenced by Western artists such as Piet Mondrian and Frank Stella during the 1985 “New Wave” art movement, Ding Yi launched his iconic Appearance of Crosses series in 1988, aiming to create “an ultimate impression of abstraction”. At the time, he “designed” paintings resembling plans for fabrics or blankets, using rulers and tape to eliminate traces of hand gestures—rigorously precise compositions formed through the

repetition of the cross.

Ding Yi’s methodical structures are animated by vibrant, reflexively chosen colours, introducing an element of chance and tension into the work. Through colour and form, his paintings reflect on China’s rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, with visual motifs echoing QR codes and the sensory intensity of an information-driven society. Since 2010, Ding Yi has adopted a more expansive perspective in his examination of the world, integrating reflections on the broader human condition. His more recent works reveal greater luminosity and intensity, carrying a deeper emotional resonance.

Ding Yi was born in Shanghai in 1962, where he continues to live and work. He studied Design at the Shanghai Art & Design Academy (1980–1983), and later traditional Chinese painting at Shanghai University’s Fine Arts Department (1986–1990). His recent solo exhibitions include those at Contemporary Gallery Kunming and Anthropology Museum of Yunnan University (2025); Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales (2025); Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne (2024), Paris and St. Moritz (2025); Château La Coste, Provence (2024); Ningbo Museum of Art and Huamao Museum of Art Education (2023); MOCAUP, Shenzhen (2023); Mojie Art Museum, Taiyuan (2023); TAG Art Museum, Qingdao (2022); Jebumgang Art Center, Lhasa (2022); Galería RGR, Mexico City (2022); ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (2018) and Singapore (2022); Timothy Taylor, New York (2021) and London (2019); Long Museum, Chongqing (2020) and West Bund, Shanghai (2015); Nova Contemporary, Bangkok (2020); Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich (2019); Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2018); Xi’an Art Museum (2017); and Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan (2016).

Ding Yi has exhibited extensively in major international group exhibitions at institutions such as The British Museum, London; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Power Station of Art and MOCA Shanghai; SFMOMA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and Bilbao; Mercedes-Benz Contemporary, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; MAXXI, Rome; UCCA, Beijing; and touring exhibitions in Bern, Hamburg, and Barcelona. He has also shown in biennales and triennales including the Venice Biennale (1993), Asia-Pacific Triennial (1993), Biennale of Sydney (1998), Yokohama Triennale (2001), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), and Busan Biennale (2016).

LISSON GALLERY

67 Lisson Street, London

www.lissongallery.com

Ding Yi: The Road to Heaven

Lisson Gallery, London, 27 September – 1 November 2025

21/10/25

Ed Ruscha @ Gagosian Gallery, London - 'Says I, to Myself, Says I' Exhibition

Ed Ruscha

Says I, to Myself, Says I

Gagosian, London

October 14 – December 19, 2025

Ed Ruscha

New Hey, 2024

Acrylic on linen

20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm)

Photo: Jeff McLane

Courtesy Gagosian

Gagosian presents Says I, to Myself, Says I, Ed Ruscha’s first exhibition dedicated to his paintings on unprimed linen. On view at the Davies Street gallery in London, it coincides with Talking Doorways, an exhibition at Gagosian’s rue de Castiglione gallery in Paris.

Ed Ruscha began making paintings on raw linen in the early 1990s, although this body of work has never before been the focus of an exhibition. The ten new works in this format presented in London establish visual and textural contrasts between the painted words and images and their supports, emphasizing their definition and potential. Rendered in a serif typeface and mostly in white, many of the words are underlined with tapering black shapes that accentuate them and suggest horizons and cast shadows within otherwise flat compositions, while some canvases include additional painted passages and symbols.

Ed Ruscha

It's It, 2024

Acrylic on linen

20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm)

Photo: Jeff McLane

Courtesy Gagosian

Since the 1960s, Ed Ruscha has consistently foregrounded the strangeness of everyday language, exploring how the relationships between words and images transform the meanings of each. It’s It (2024) suggests an attempt to clarify the identity of something, though the lack of antecedents renders the doubled pronoun somewhat cryptic. It’s It also incorporates the naturalistic image of a wooden plank stretched across the top of the composition—the defining element of the artist’s Tom Sawyer paintings from 2022.

Ed Ruscha

And What Not, 2023

Acrylic on linen

24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)

Photo: Jeff McLane

Courtesy GagosianEd Ruscha

Other works picture a mountain peak—among Ed Ruscha’s most iconic motifs—in a juxtaposition of archetypal landscape imagery with signifying language. Instead of using the snowy range as a backdrop to text as he did in his Mountain series (1997–), Ed Ruscha here positions it as a graphic and painterly element, replacing abstract shapes in these paintings.

Ed Ruscha

Says I, to Myself Says I, 2024

Acrylic on linen

20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm)

Photo: Jeff McLane

Courtesy Gagosian

Says I, to Myself Says I (2024) places its text at a diagonal, the words’ dynamism emphasized by the geometric shapes that extend from the lines to the right. An intriguing example of vernacular language, the phrase can be found in Irish and American folk songs and colloquial sayings, while the repetition of “Says I” suggests an introspective declaration.

Gagosian will publish a catalogue on Ruscha’s new work to accompany the exhibition.

Ed Ruscha

Says I, to Myself, Says I, 2025, installation view

Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd

Courtesy Gagosian

GAGOSIAN, LONDON

17–19 Davies Street, London W1K 3DE

gagosian.com