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 work infused with humor and unease by German artist Werner Büttner from Triumph Gallery.

About the Artwork

Werner Büttner
Haunted Household
Oil on canvas
2020
150 × 120 cm

©Courtesy of the artist and Triumph Gallery

Haunted Household, created in 2020, continues Werner Büttner’s signature “Bad Painting” aesthetic—a visual language deliberately rejecting traditional painting techniques and taste, which Büttner helped shape in the 1980s alongside Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen.

The composition is dominated by a deep blue-black tone. A jet-black cat sits alertly on a bright yellow floral armchair, turning its head to gaze back at the viewer. The chair, covered in a white foliage pattern, appears strikingly incongruous against the dark background, like a prop caught in a stage spotlight. At the top of the canvas, the red titular text “HAUNTED HOUSEHOLD” is embedded directly into the composition, breaking the boundary between painting and text like a neon sign—a hallmark of Büttner’s practice, where the title itself becomes part of the visual narrative.

Büttner is renowned for his “Bad Painting” aesthetic, deliberately abandoning refined traditional techniques in favor of a rough, improvisational quality. In this work, the juxtaposition of the black cat and the furniture is no mere still life; it is a playful deconstruction of the concept of “home.” The cat serves simultaneously as a docile pet and a spectral presence merging with the space, hinting at the absurdity and unease lurking within everyday life. The faint window and floating light spots in the background further intensify this psychological atmosphere that is at once familiar and alien.

With a tone that is humorous yet slightly melancholic, the work transforms a middle-class domestic scene into a charged theatrical space of the psyche, inviting the viewer to re-examine those hidden emotional corners that truly “haunt” the everyday.

About the Artist

Portrait of Artist
©Courtesy of the artist and Triumph Gallery

Werner Büttner was born in 1954, Jena, Germany. He studied Law at Berlin Free University in 1973. He Moved to Hamburg in 1977, and worked with Georg  Herold, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen from 1977 to 1985. From 1989 to 2021, he was a Professor of Painting at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. The artist currently lives and works in Geesthacht, Germany.

Werner Büttner’s recent solo exhibitions include: He, Who Does Not Thrash Painting, Hates Painting!, Triumph Gallery, Beijing, 2025; Fool, Leaving the Shelter of Seclusion, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, 2025; Malerei 1981-2022, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, 2023; Werner Büttner, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, 2022; Analogies, Allegories and Metaphors of the Human Condition, Triumph Gallery, Beijing, 2022; Last Lecture Show, The Ranch, New York, 2022; Last Lecture Show, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburger, 2021; No Scene from My Studio, Simon Lee Gallery, London, 2021. Recent group exhibitions include: How’s my painting? Paintings from the Falckenberg Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, 2025; Back then has always been now. Painting since 1947 reconsidered, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 2021; Works on paper 5, Max Weber Six Friedric, Munich, 2021; Büttner, Kippenberger & Oehlen: Trio Infernal, Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Zurich, 2020; Der Goldene Reiter in Faustrecht der Freiheit aka Fox and His Friends, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, 2020; Works on paper 4, Max Weber Six Friedric, Munich, 2020; Room enough for former teasers, Galerie Gisela Capitain, St. Apern Str., Cologne, 2020; Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, London,  2020; Works from the 1980s/Conceptual Photography, Marlborough Gallery, New York, 2020.

In addition, Büttner’s works are in many important collections, institutions and foundations, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, USA; FRAC Poitou- Charentes, France; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany; Mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria; Harvard Art Museum, USA; Pinakothek der Moderne, Germany, and many more.