ST. MORITZ.- Galerie Karsten Greve St. Moritz is presenting Constellations, the second solo exhibition in Switzerland by internationally acclaimed artist Ding Yi. The show brings together selected works from various creative phases in recent years – including paintings on wood and canvas as well as works on handmade Tibetan and Indian paper – combining conceptual precision with a spiritual condensation of pictorial space.

In line with his previous œuvre, the exhibited works reflect Ding Yi’s ongoing engagement with systems of order, visual language, and the aesthetic autonomy of the sign. In more recent works, the star emerges as a new element: the previously dominant cross and plus signs evolve into so-called “cross-stellations” – formations reminiscent of both celestial constellations and the vertical structures of modern metropolises. The resulting compositions resemble visual maps oscillating between science and transcendence.

Since the 1990s, Ding Yi’s work has reflected the experience of urban density in megacities such as Shanghai and Beijing. The visual speed and rhythmic repetition of his signs make the pulse of modern life tangible.

In his graphic alphabet, the cross (x), the plus (+), and the star (*) function as equal, neutral modules – symbols of a universal language that deliberately resists unambiguous readability.

A central work in the exhibition, Appearance of Crosses 2023-4, powerfully expresses these principles: this large-format wooden piece evokes the vertical light streams of a city at night. Delicately placed markings in red, orange, and white subtly break through the grid, creating moments of visual disruption – like brief, luminous flashes of cosmic depth.

With the introduction of the star, a spiritual dimension enters Ding Yi’s work. Since his exhibition Multi-verse: Ding Yi in Tibet (2022), a stronger engagement with questions of the spiritual, with ritual and inner orientation, has become increasingly apparent. This is particularly evident in works executed on Tibetan and Indian handmade paper – such as Appearance of Crosses 2022-B 17 or 2023-B 5. Here, the delicacy of the material combines with the rhythmic structure of the image to create a sensitive equilibrium.

These works on paper clearly demonstrate how Ding Yi regards the nature of his materials not merely as carriers but as active counterparts. The elaborate process involved in crafting handmade Tibetan and Indian paper – a sequence of scooping, pressing, drying, and smoothing – follows its own inner choreography that merges almost symbiotically with Ding Yi’s artistic practice. He treats the paper not as a neutral surface, but as an active element of the process. The material’s history, structure, and rhythm flow into the composition and merge with gestural application to form works in which form and content are inextricably intertwined.

Works such as Appearance of Crosses 2012-1 and 2012-4 offer a retrospective view of Ding Yi’s artistic development. The monumental visual language already evident in these earlier pieces has, in his current works, attained new concentration and conceptual depth.

The large-format sheets resemble cartographies of hidden meaning – abstract landscapes of memory, light, and structure. Technically, they are executed with the utmost precision: every line, every layer of color is applied with control; each step remains in the hands of the artist. Ding Yi describes this process as a “colloquialization” of his signs – a conscious levelling, a democratization of formal language, in which not the symbol itself but the viewer’s act of seeing and feeling takes center stage. “Don’t search for the meaning of the image,” says the artist, “but look, feel, and observe for yourself.”

For nearly four decades, Ding Yi has been expanding the possibilities of abstract painting. His works communicate beyond language and convey a unique tension between urgency and calm, density and openness, rationality and inner experience.

As a pioneer of contemporary Chinese abstraction, Ding Yi (*1962, Shanghai) is represented in numerous major collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the British Museum in London, M+ in Hong Kong, and the UBS Art Collection in Zurich.

A catalogue titled Constellations, published by Galerie Karsten Greve, accompanies the exhibition and features texts by Yongwoo Lee and Magdalena Kröner.