Biography:

Ding Yi (b. 1962, Shanghai) is an artist and has been a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts at Fudan University since 2005.

Between 1980 and 1983, Ding was enrolled at the Shanghai College of Arts and Crafts, an important art school in Shanghai at the time. Other noteworthy members of this school include Yu Youhan, Chen Zhen and Wang Ziwei to name a few.

After graduating, Ding became a designer in the Number 12 Toy Factory in Shanghai, and he began to experiment with abstract oil paintings. In 1986, Ding exhibited his work at the first ‘Concave-Convex' exhibition, one of the first showcases for experimental art in Shanghai. In 1988, Ding began to use an abstract pattern of crosses in his paintings, which later developed into his celebrated series Appearance of Crosses.

Ding continues to paint and exhibit widely, both internationally and in China. Most recently, his work appeared in a group show called ‘Shanghai’ held at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum (2010).