East, London
Ding Shilun
Ding Shilun
Zabludowicz Collection"There is a fantastical nature to my work: the spectacle of it all allows me to hide or mask a deeper personal story." —Ding Shilun Zabludowicz Collection is pleased to present an exhibition by Chinese-born, London-based artist Ding Shilun. Influenced by Chinese folklore and contemporary comics, Shilun works across illustration and painting to build mythological narratives depicting the absurdity of everyday life. The installation extends from a site-specific wall mural by Shilun featuring a series of interconnected disembodied figures with human hearts exposed through their face, palms and chest. This enlarged rendition of his intricately detailed watercolour and ink illustrations serves as a significant backdrop for a salon-style display of the artist’s recent series of thirty works. Building on his practice of creating daily drawings, Shilun traces the journey of a spiky-haired artist navigating a distorted parallel reality. In his illustrations, street corners, cafés and public parks are transformed into surreal landscapes featuring strange encounters with other-worldly and monstrous beings. Ding Shilun (b. 1998, Guangzhou, China) received an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2022 and a BA from Guangzhou Academy of Art in 2020. Recent exhibitions include Premonition of Stranding, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2023); Art Basel Miami, Galerie Maria Bernheim, USA (2022); Paradiso, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zürich, Switzerland (2022); Inside Out, The Artist Room, London (2022); Glory, Making Space, Guangzhou, China (2021); Abnormal, LPS Gallery, Guangzhou, China (2021); Da Vinci Talk: Wait and Hope, Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, New Zealand (2020); and The Choice Of The Graduate Star 2020, Boxes Art Space, OCAT Shenzhen, China (2020). Ding Shilun is represented by Galerie Maria Bernheim and is working towards an exhibition with K11 in Shanghai, China, in 2024.