Embroidery, threads, beads, raised elements and paint fragments from the artist’s studio
Approx. 350 × 250 cm
2026

In collaboration with Montex, Chanel

Developed with Montex, Ding Yi’s new embroidered work extends the logic of his Appearance of Crosses series, begun in 1988 and built around the repeated cross, rotated cross and grid as a rigorous abstract language. It is conceived in dialogue with two 2023 paintings, in which Ding Yi developed a process of layering paint on basswood before carving into the surface, allowing crosses, lines and chromatic fragments to appear through removal.

The collaboration does not reproduce these paintings; it reverses and displaces their material logic. Where the painted works proceed through accumulation, incision and subtraction, the embroidered work is constructed through thread, relief, transparency and re-application. Ding Yi’s own paint fragments — residues from his studio practice, sorted by colour — are introduced into a gridded embroidered structure. Placed along corresponding colour lines, they create a direct dialogue between the paintings’ material history and Montex’s embroidery.

For Montex, the project gives textile existence to Ding Yi’s graphic signs. Multi-head embroidery allows the atelier to construct a large-scale grid that remains legible without becoming mechanical: some areas stay open, while others are denser, layered or activated by beads, threads, raised elements and paint fragments. The structure echoes Ding Yi’s surfaces, where traces, removals, additions and shifts gradually disturb the apparent order of the grid.

The work also establishes a dialogue between two forms of disciplined labour. Ding Yi’s monumental paintings are made through a slow, solitary and meditative process; embroidery likewise depends on repetition, concentration and the intelligence of the hand. Suspended in space, with its reverse side visible, the Montex piece reveals not only the image, but the labour behind it: knots, threads, irregularities and traces of making. Between painted surface and textile structure, the collaboration becomes a material counterpart to Ding Yi’s paintings, reforming the cross through another hand, rhythm and medium.

Appearance of Crosses – Embroidery Painting

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