“I’d describe my practice as a sugar-coated bullet. It looks sweet and delicate but when you come closer, you’re like, what happened here?”
—Ding Shilun

Rooted in an indulgent mash-up of cross-cultural pictorial references, from Chinese folklore to Western mainstream culture, Japanese manga, ancient mythology, and the old masters, Ding Shilun’s paintings weave intricate narratives that transcend the realms of time, genre, logic, and language. A unique approach to storytelling that the young Chinese artist gifts us in his spellbinding oil on canvas The adoption of the maiden. Three women converge in this warmly lit and intimate interior, arranged in perfect balance. Gracefully revolving around each other, their movements and energies intertwine without touching, as though witnessing an exquisitely orchestrated choreography. The direction of their gazes guides our eyes, gliding along the angles of this triangular composition, and revealing the underlying power dynamics between the characters. As the title beckons, Shilun’s tale builds on the prominent pagan archetype of the Maiden and the triple goddess, featuring Mother and Crone. A mythological tale of life, death, and rebirth, endlessly revisited by masters throughout history, like in Egon Schiele’s enrapturing 1915 painting Death and the Maiden.

 

In a receding plane, glimpsing through a white sheer curtain stands our Maiden, enrobed in a cascading crimson-red gown, as Schiele’s namesake character. Radiating youth and innocence, she is the embodiment of new beginnings, the onset of the cycle. Curiously – or shyly, perhaps – she stares at the figure in the foreground, draped in dark plumage, herself lost in her own reflection while holding a mop of hair. Diagonally from her, the third woman glances back at the feathery figure, eyes wide open, hair on end, covering her mouth with one hand while clutching a tiny cup with the other. Has she plucked her hair? Suspended in the climax of tension, we can only wonder.

Almost-Realism, Impossible-Miracles

 

Painted in delicate, watery, translucid brushstrokes, Shilun’s artworks mimic the see-through effect of traditional Chinese Gongbi paintings, originally made with water-based pigments applied to specially matted rice paper. To achieve such an effect with oil paint, the artist painstakingly superimposes thin layers of solvent-diluted pigment. A meticulous technique with no room for error, braiding time into every brushstroke, each painting unfolded over months: ‘It requires hyper-focus. You can’t wash it off, so it’s quite stressful.ⁱ As Gongbi paintings, Shilun’s canvases are skilfully detailed. Like richly embroidered tapestries, threaded through with a rich diversity of textures. Luscious dresses with glimmering beads, dainty dandelions, silky glistening feathers, sheer draperies, twisted and intricate coiffures, finely crafted floral motifs, hyper-realistic furniture, immerse his paintings in the realm of the almost-realist.

 

Wrapped in a realist veil, his fables occur in an imaginary world, where boundaries between the real and the supernatural blend. Tricked into thinking that the rules governing the painting echo our physical world, we feel a sense of familiarity when first looking at it. We recognize the different elements composing the domestic scene: the people, the furniture, the ornamental features. However, upon a closer look, we find ourselves in uncharted territory, becoming unsettlingly aware that our rules of logic don’t seem to apply in this reality. Here, women have turned into satyrs; mirrors reflect a distorted reality. Deeply inspired by the mystical and otherworldly legends found in Chinese folklore, Shilun’s cast of characters pose as impossible-miracles, defying the laws of probability, plausibility, and coherence.

Everything, Everywhere, and Everyone

 

Enthralled by the concept of ‘events’, the artist fills his narratives with co-existing perspectives, mounting tensions, bewildering riddles, and confusing paradoxes. Departing from a mental image, he paints spontaneously, without preparatory drawings or underpaintings: ‘It’s like a puzzle game, it comes piece by piece.’ⁱⁱ As a result, his paintings become a mind-bending multiverse of proliferating timelines and possibilities in which everything, everywhere, and everyone can exist at once. An act of cosmogenesis, reminiscent of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once.

 

Everything Everywhere All At Once | Official Trailer HD | A24

 

Both works delve into the modern conflict between past and future, inherited and assimilated, individual and society, Eastern and Western. As Shilun describes, ‘[my characters are] projections and embodiments of my inner self, reflecting my confusion living across different cultures and ideologies, as well as my desire to construct my own reality’². Like Shilun, Kwan and Scheinert’s protagonist navigates through a multitude of realms, where she is faced with an infinite array of outcomes based on the choices she makes. Purpose and free-will emerge as the ultimate pathos.

 

Collector’s Digest

 

• Since completing his MA at the Royal College of Arts, London, in 2022, Ding Shilun has been the subject of several solo shows internationally, notably at ICA Miami in 2024, at Zabludowicz Collection in London, at Bernheim Gallery in Zurich and London.
   

• His works are in the collections of renowned public and private institutions such as The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection of Contemporary Art, Dallas; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Albertina Museum, Vienna; Museu Inima De Paula, Below Horizonte, Brazil; Asymmetry Art Foundation, London, or Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas.

 

 

ⁱ Alex Needham, ‘Artist Ding Shilun Makes His Own Mythology’, WMagazine, 5 February 2024, online.

ⁱⁱ Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art, Ding Shilun: Janus, press release, 3 December 2024 - 13 April 2025.