Taiwanese women break through art's glass ceiling

The Venice Biennale has drawn attention for its focus on women artists and to the inequities regarding the treatment of women in the art world. To focus on a feminist issue may seem like an old concern dating from the 1980s. However, if there are no constant reminders it would be easy for female artists to lose their footing in the international art world, a world that is dominated by white male artists, as evidenced in exhibitions and in written art histories.

This week there are several local exhibitions that focus on the achievements of Taiwanese women in the arts. Fortunately, without being didactic, or obnoxiously proselytizing, the exhibitions act as a gentle reminder that some of Taiwan's leading artists just happen to be women.

At the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the exhibition Lightscape -- Between Mind and Matter runs to Sep. 4. The exhibition showcases the work of twelve Taiwanese painters who gained prominence in the 1980s. Many of the works on view are abstract oil paintings with a nature-based theme.

Wen Liyun's (鄭麗雲) oil on canvas titled Water-2003B looks like the moon in the dark sky, but it may also be a close-up of the ocean and connects the lunar image to the tidal. Po Ying-ping (薄茵萍) was inspired by the fact that even when nature is destructive -- such as in a typhoon -- the life force remains strong.

Locally reknowned abstract painters Ava Hsueh (薛保瑕) and Emily Yang (楊世芝) are well-represented by their acrylic paintings. Hsueh's The Entity of PS combines furiously painted brush strokes along with calm subdued areas. Yang's Muddy Rhythm (2001) is a panoramic landscape view hinting at the large-scale vistas of Chinese landscape painting.

Another exhibition at the museum commemorates the work of late artist Chen Hsing-wan (陳幸婉), who passed away in Paris last year. The daughter of famous sculptor Chen Hsia-yu, Chen was born in Taichung and began her art career in the late 1970s. Chen's work is infused with intense physical energy, with the gestures of her work seeming to emanate from her body. The works on view include ink paintings, collages, ready-made and large bas-relief fabric constructions. The exhibition is laid out chronologically starting with her oil paintings of 1975 and ending with her last work Time, created in 2001.

Opening this Saturday night is a solo exhibition by Jun Lai (賴純純) entitled Spring Ether Coming and Going.

Lai is one of the few pioneering women artists in Taiwan who came to attention in the 1980s and now currently works in the field of public art. She will show new sculpture-like wall pieces that evoke springtime feelings, while her older work of brightly-hued paintings is inclu-ded in the Lightscape exhibition mentioned previously.

This last event, which is held this evening, is not by a woman artist. German prize-winning artist Patrick Palucki, who is currently doing a residency at the Taipei Artist Village, will have a presentation of his work at 7:30 tonight at the Bamboo Room at the TAV. Entitled Sign his work consists of an installation of traffic signage that symbolizes the control of masses of people and our urban collective identity. He will also show his film Today Starts On Page 23.

The experimental film is a collage of signs cinematically presented. So whe-ther you are inspired by the rural or the urban in art, there looks like there is something for everyone this weekend.