Art Taipei 2007 opens this weekend at the former World Trade Center Hall 2 from Friday to Tuesday with 80 galleries showcasing their artists. Expect conventional fare such as painterly nudes, still life paintings, calligraphic scrolls, bronze busts and Chinese landscapes with a few surprises thrown in, such as the famous photograph of Marilyn Monroe in a white dress.
Art fairs contribute to a lively art market, which is vital to artists' livelihoods. Art fairs help sell works to art collectors while auction houses such as Sothebys and Christies help set standard prices for works of art. Taiwan's art market has taken a beating with the recent exodus of both Sothebys and Christies, so the Art Galleries Association (AGA) hopes to strengthen the local art market.
"Active participation proves Taiwan has a more prosperous art market than neighboring countries," York Hsiao (蕭耀), Chairman of the AGA said.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ART GALLERIES ASSOCIATION
Despite generating huge sales, last year's art fair was a fiasco. Art Taipei 2006 had technical problems; it was held in an extremely humid environment, the Huashan old winery. The lack of air conditioning damaged some works, and the overall non-professional atmosphere prompted one international gallery to pack up in a huff and leave on the first day. In addition, several local exhibitors displayed wines and fruit, which transformed the fair into something more resembling a trade show and drew criticism from art professionals.
Even though this is the 15th year such an art fair has been held, one of the ongoing problems is the lack of organizational continuity. As is often the case in the local art scene, annual staff changes mean that mailing lists are discarded, so contacts that were made the previous year are lost, which results in poor coverage by foreign journalists, critics and curators. This lack of organization prevents Art Taipei from improving and matching the international standards of the prestigious Art Basel.
In an attempt to rectify these problems, this year's fair is to be held in the former World Trade Center II, a space that is better equipped for this type of exhibition.
The fair is divided into three sections: Art Galleries; Asia Live: Art and Literature; and Ela-Asia. The theme Art and Literature, which was chosen by a committee, focuses on literary texts used in contemporary art and their relation to new media. Ela-Asia is devoted to digital and video arts.
Every Art Taipei exhibition names one Artist of the Year. This year Yeh Fang (葉放) from Julia Gallery was chosen. He was born in Suzhou, China, in 1962 and built a Chinese-style garden in which he works while living the lifestyle of a literati painter.
In addition to the local galleries such as Jeff Hsu's Art (觀想藝術有限公司), Lin & Keng Gallery (大未來畫廊), and Galerie Grand Siecle (新苑藝術), 30 percent of the participating galleries are from abroad: France, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.
Taiwan Contemporary Art Link will have a booth to celebrate the inauguration of its Web site www.taiwancontemporaryart.net, which features the work of well-known digital artists such as Kuo I-Chen (郭奕臣), Tao Ya-Lun (陶亞倫), Wang Ya-Hui (王雅慧) and Yao Jui-Chung (姚瑞中).
Besides the fair, there is a series of lectures on Saturday and Sunday: "Artistic Literature and Life" by Yeh Fang; "Decoding of Contemporary Chinese Art" by Terry Huang (黃文叡); "Another Vision: Trends and Tips of Photography Collection" by Michael Chen (陳贊雲); "Whose Dress Talks! Contemporary Art V.S. Dress Code" by Hu Chao-shen (胡朝聖); and "Outra Fair: Five Links to Contemporary Art" by Rita Chang (張元茜).
Chang curated Outra Fair, an outdoor display of five different groups of artists that will be held at the Vieshow pedestrian area in Xinyi district from today through to June 2.
Temple Fair features artists from southern Taiwan who will exhibit in a makeshift temple, while other displays contain interactive works that promote local contemporary art.
Outra Fair begins today at 6:30pm. A dress code requires visitors to wear Chinese-style clothing.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located