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 painting by artist Xing Wanli from Keyi Gallery — a work that explores the relationship between text, image, and memory.

About the Artwork

Xing Wanli
Amusement Park XI
Oil on canvas
2024
114 × 162 cm
©Courtesy of the artist and Keyi Gallery

In Amusement Park XI, Xing Wanli constructs an overhead spatial field filtered through the logic of gaming, translating digital experience into a fluid visual narrative.

The figures within the composition appear established, yet remain in a state of becoming—held within loosened and unstable boundaries, as if not yet fully formed. The drifting black mist in the background continuously encroaches upon and attempts to dissolve the distinct features of concrete forms, while the fragmented shapes in the foreground are imbued with a palpable sense of weight and descent. Pressing against the void-like background, they seem to arrest a fleeting instant within an endless drift. Within this pictorial space, the recurring tension between heaviness and lightness, stillness and movement, allows flowing time and solidified matter to engage in a silent contest of forces.

About the Artist

Portrait of Artist
©Courtesy of the artist and Keyi Gallery

Xing Wanli (b. 1992, Chengde, Hebei) studied at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, and now lives and works in Chengdu. Through his ongoing exploration of the relationship between text, image and memory, Xing creates works that present diverse visual structures and invite viewers into a multidimensional space of reflection.

In his artistic creations, Xing employs the fluidity and uncontrollability inherent to the medium of oil paint, allowing the images to oscillate between stillness and noise, figuration and abstraction. By capturing the fragmentary and accidental nature of memory, he fixes those drifting images of consciousness onto the canvas. In this process, memory is no longer a simple reproduction of the past, but an active state intertwined with present perception—constantly reconstructed and participating in the experience of the now.

His works are held in the collections of X Museum and other institutions. His work, Assassinating the Chief of the Knights, was selected into the “Cultural City of East Asia 2019 Toshima Award”. His solo exhibitions include “Behind the Wall”, Keyi Gallery (Beijing, 2026); “There Are More Things”, X Museum (Beijing, 2024); “Far Oasis”, KeYi Gallery (Hefei, 2021); and “The Shape of Story”, MoMo Art Center (Xi’an, 2019). He has recently participated in group exhibitions including “The Time Has Come – Case Studies of 22 Artists”, KeYi Gallery (Hefei, 2025); “I-Define III: 10 Stories”, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space (Chengdu, 2024); “Silo Dreams”, KeYi Gallery (Hefei, 2024); “Era of Encore”, Beijing Times Art Museum (Beijing, 2024); “The World as Will and Representation”, KeYi Gallery (Beijing, 2023); “How Many Times, I Have Left My Everyday Life”, 69 ART CAMPUS (Beijing, 2022); and “Sputnik Lovers”, Qingjin Plan (Beijing, 2020), etc.