About the artwork:
In a dim room, a tiger rider appears to charge at full speed, with trees rushing past in the background. Yet on closer view, the tiger is merely a person in costume, and the landscape a studio backdrop. The elevated viewpoint and spotlight imply a subtle power dynamic, while amplifying the absurdity and fragility of this supposedly heroic act. This visual illusion exposes the tension between desire and reality, and highlights the contradiction between the symbol of “moving forward” and the lived experience of stasis.
The title Chana Star is drawn from a minivan once used by Ding Zhi’s parents in the early days of their small business, evoking the fading dreams of small entrepreneurs amid China’s shifting economy. With self-mocking humor, the work conveys a profound understanding of ordinary life—suggesting that perhaps many of us are “tiger riders” trapped in the torrents.
About the artist:
Zhi Ding's paintings are deeply rooted in her lived experiences, shaped both by memories of growing up in the small city of Jiujiang, China, and by the dislocations of life abroad. Her practice moves fluidly between the personal and the collective, between memory and fiction, where elements of magical realism surface subtly, balancing cartoonish innocence with somber, wistful introspection.
Figures often hover at the threshold of visibility or linger within moments of transition, generating atmospheres that are simultaneously charged and suspended — spaces in which the familiar collides with the strange and certainty dissolves into ambiguity. Through the tensions between observation and secrecy, progress and stagnation, power and fragility, reality and illusion, Ding delineates the fragile contours of ordinary lives with humor, sensitivity, and compassion. Ultimately, her paintings become the portraits of everyday life—cruel yet tender, grounded in harsh reality yet never without hope.
Zhi Ding was born in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China in 1992. She received a BS in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, a Post- Baccalaureate and MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021 and 2023.
Ding has held three solo exhibitions: Drifting Shores at Western Exhibitions, Chicago (2024), Secretly, Inwardly, Dimly at MOU PROJECTS, Hong Kong (2024), and Short Stories at Arsenal Contemporary, New York (2023).
The artist’s work has also been presented in numerous group exhibitions, including at Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2025); LINSEED Projects, Shanghai (2024); Dans les yeux d’Elsa and Mathilde le coz, Paris (2024); Hew Hood Gallery, London (2023); and Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston (2023), among others. Ding’s work has also been featured in New American Paintings (Issue #165, 2023). The artist currently lives and works in New York City.
