Beijing Dangdai Art Fair 2026 will take place from May 21 to 24 at Hall 11 of the National Agricultural Exhibition Center, with May 21 to 22 as VIP Preview Days and May 23 to 24 as Public Days. Under the theme “LAND TRACE,” this year’s edition re-examines cultural differences and uneven experiences through the lens of geography and historical geography across multiple contexts, further delineating the detailed landscape of contemporary art amid a moment of value reshaping.

We will be releasing a series of posters centered on works featured at the Fair. These works not only offer possible interpretations of and responses to “LAND TRACE,” but also serve as preview highlights of key artworks and participating institutions. The poster shared in this edition features a signature abstract painting by artist Jonas Weichsel from Galerie Thomas Schulte.

About the Artwork

Jonas Weichsel
Hruby
Acrylic and UV print on canvas
2025
58 × 42 × 1 cm
©Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Thomas Schulte

From a distance, Hruby appears to be dominated by the color purple; but, as we draw closer, the impression dissipates to reveal an unexpectedly wide array of constituent parts. The relationships between colors are defined by jagged edges, at times more distinct and at others more visibly frayed, yet always remain fluid.

The wavy character of the work might recall a cardiogram, a polygraph, or sound frequencies – tracing and measuring rhythms and their changes. There’s also a suggestion of the magnified marks of a brush, its finely split hairs, weaving threads of many colors. The title Hruby may evoke the Czech word for “rough”, “raw,” “unrefined”.

About the Artist

Portrait of Artist

©Photo by Julian Weichsel

Jonas Weichsel creates minimalist paintings of uncanny precision and impalpability, which upon closer inspection translate into sensuous, lived experiences. Early on, Weichsel developed his unique analytical and systematic painting technique, which he continues to pursue often combining digital and plotting techniques with hand-painted elements to explore the possibilities and limits of painting and the boundaries between immateriality and a tangible, material presence. His paintings inherit a deceptive simplicity and unfold their full power only in the contemplation of the original.

Jonas Weichsel, born 1982 in Darmstadt, Germany, first studied in Mainz and Düsseldorf before completing his Meisterschüler with Judith Hopf at Städelschule Frankfurt. In 2016, he was awarded a residency at the Villa Romana in Florence, Italy. In 2012, he won the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium after having been awarded the Dies Academicus—the Prize of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz—alongside a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes in 2009.

Recent solo exhibitions include Oldenburger Kunstverein (2021), Joseph Albers Museum, Bottrop (2018), Museum Wiesbaden (2016), and Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt a.M. (2013). Important group exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt (2018; 2017; 2011), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2017), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2016), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2016), Villa Romana, Florence, Italy (2016), Frankfurter Kunstverein (2015), Kunsthalle Wiesbaden (2015), Kunsthalle Mainz (2015; 2010), Kunstraum Bethanien, Berlin (2015), Salondergegenwart, Hamburg (2013), Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden (2012), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2011), Wilhelm Hack Museum (2010), and Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (2010). 

Jonas Weichsel lives and works in Frankfurt a.M.