Ding’s artistic and curatorial practice focuses on multiple viewpoints and modes of description, exploring a trajectory of discursive thoughts that connect the historical and the contemporary. His work seeks to broaden possibilities for a more manifold understanding of the historical narrative of subjectivity within Chinese art.
He’s participated in biennales including Busan Biennale (2018), Yinchuan Biennale (2018), Istanbul Biennial (2015), Asia Pacific Triennial (2015), Prospect 3 New Orleans (2014), Shanghai Biennale (2014), Taipei Biennial (2012), Chinese Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennial (2009), Media City Seoul (2008) and Guangzhou Triennale (2005).
His work has been shown at numerous major art institutions, including Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2020); MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna (2019); The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2018); Museum Fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (2018); 4A, Sydney (2017); Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern (2016); Guandu Museum of Art, Taipei (2016); Para Site, Hong Kong (2016); Red Brick Museum, Beijing (2016); Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2016/2012); Museum Bonnefanten, Maastricht (2015) ; MOMA PS1, New York (2015); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2015); Tate Modern, London (2013/2012); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei (2012); Times Museum, Guangzhou (2012/2011); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2011); Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2008); PasquArt, Biel (2008); Arnolfini, Bristol (2008); Turner Contemporary, Kent (2008); São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo (2008); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2007); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Shanghai (2006); Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco (2006); Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2006); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006), and so on.
Since 2007, Liu Ding has worked collaboratively with Carol Yinghua Lu as a curatorial team. They have curated many shows, including: Trans-Southeast Asia Triennial: Sounds as Silence: The Academic Value of Life (2021), Anren Biennale: Crossroads (2017), Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), Little Movements: Self-practice in Contemporary Art I\II\III (2011 in OCAT Shenzhen, China; 2013 in MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy and, 2015 in ACC, Gwangju, Korea), and Liberation (2010). Since 2013, they have curated a series of thematic and solo exhibitions based on their ongoing research on the resonance of socialist realism in contemporary art in China. They include Waves and Echoes: Postmodernism and the Global 1980s (2021), Waves and Echoes: A Process of Re-contemporarization in Chinese Art Circa 1987 Revisited (2020), Factories, Machines and the Poet’s Words: Echoes of the Realities in Art (2019), Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices from 1972 to 1982 in Profile – A Beijing Perspective (2020, 2017); New Measurement Group and Qian Weikang (2015); From the Issue of Art to the Issue of Position: Echoes of Socialist Realism (2014).
They have co-edited and co-authored a series of publications including Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices from 1972 to 1982 in Profile – A Beijing Perspective (The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2019); Where Have I Missed You? (The Commercial Press, 2018); Reef: A Prequel (Bonnerfantenmuseum, Maastrict, Holland, 2016); Individual Experience: Conversations and Narratives of Contemporary Art Practice in China from 1989 to 2000 (Guangzhou: Lingnan Art Publishing House, 2013); Accidental Message: Art Is Not A System, Not A World (Guangzhou: Lingnan Art Publishing House, 2012); Little Movements II: Self-Practice in Contemporary Art (Cologne: Walther König, 2013); Little Movements: Self-Practice in Contemporary Art (Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2011).