A non-profit project space dedicated to supporting artists of diverse Asian backgrounds and drawing from different diasporic experiences, YDP will open on Bedford Square, central London, in October 2025. With dialogue and transcultural connections at its core, YDP will host a varied programme of exhibitions, artist residencies, site-specific commissions and artist-led experiments.
YDP is born as a personal project of London-based arts philanthropist Yan Du, part of her overarching vision to facilitate transcultural dialogues and support Asian and Asian diasporic artists. YDP will foster diverse explorations of contemporary art practices and amplify artists’ voices through a fluid and experimental programme.
YDP will open with a solo exhibition by Duan Jianyu (b.1970, Zhengzhou; lives in Guangzhou), an artist celebrated for her painterly exploration of the complexities of modern life.
YDP’s programme will be flexible and responsive to the current arts landscape and individual artists’ needs. Informed by conversations with artists, YDP will host up to three exhibitions per year, mapped out alongside periods kept open for reflection and more spontaneous durational programming such as performances, film screenings, talks and more.
Additionally, YDP will host bespoke artist residencies with a dedicated on-site studio and a space for work-in-progress display. The process-oriented residencies will devote individual attention and care to each participating artist, supporting them to conduct research and artistic experiments in London for new works.
The inaugural artist-in-residence, Harit Srikhao (b.1995, Bangkok; lives in Bangkok), will be hosted by YDP from September to November 2025.
Located in a Grade I Listed eighteenth-century townhouse, YDP’s home was carefully conceptualised as a ‘suitcase project’ that reflects the diasporic experience of nomadic home-making. The redesign was developed collaboratively with BEAU Architects, a Hong Kong-based studio. Modular and temporary in its structure, this redesign introduces flexibility and adaptability into the original Georgian architecture of the building while honouring the historical heritage of Bedford Square.
Notes to Editors
About YDP
Emerging from Asian backgrounds and drawing upon a multitude of diasporic experiences, YDP amplifies artists' voices and responds to their needs through a programme of exhibitions, residencies and artist-led experiments.
We learn from and grow alongside artists, taking time to reflect on and present contemporary practices. With a flexible approach, we explore new models for nurturing creativity and criticality.
Our home on Bedford Square is a convivial space where we exchange ideas, form bonds and imagine the future of art. We let an open and transcultural spirit guide our work. YDP is an independent, non-profit project space where everyone is welcome.
Address: 19 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA / Website / Instagram: @ydp_space
About Yan Du
Yan is a London-based arts philanthropist from China. For over fifteen years, Yan has been supporting artists and institutions through her philanthropic work. Her personal collection, YDC, includes a broad range of works than span the arc of the twentieth century to present.
In 2020, Yan founded her non-profit foundation, Asymmetry, where she continues to be a Trustee. Asymmetry supports a new generation of Chinese and Sinophone curators through professional and scholarly placements in partnership with public institutions and runs a research-led public programme at their East London studio space.
Her philanthropic efforts are furthered with the launch of YDP in 2025. Sparked by Yan's passion to directly support artistic practices, YDP is an independent, non-profit project space dedicated to providing opportunities for artists of diverse Asian backgrounds and diasporic experiences. Based in Bloomsbury, London, it will host a varied programme of exhibitions, artist residencies, site-specific commissions and artist-led experiments.
About BEAU Architects
BEAU Architects was founded in Hong Kong in 2014 by Charlotte Lafont-Hugo and Gilles Vanderstocken. The studio’s core ideas are articulated around the notions of context, program and constructive intelligence. Their most recent works include the Kiang Malingue Galleries in Hong Kong (2023) and Shanghai (2016), the 39 King’s Road Tower in Hong Kong (2022), the scenography for Cao Fei: Staging the Era at UCCA Beijing (2020), Cao Fei: Tidal Flux at MAP Shanghai (2024) and Cao Fei: My City is Yours at AGNSW Sydney (2025), the Oasis project, and the revitalisation of Tai Kwun Contemporary outdoor spaces (2021). The practice is currently presenting a spatial intervention at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2025).
For media enquiries, please contact: Joseph Lamb, Sutton, joseph@suttoncomms.com / Manuela Gressani, Sutton, manuela@suttoncomms.com.
