Taiwanese contemporary artist Huang Ben-rei (黃本蕊) examines the relationship between her imagination and contemporary society in Last Night Butterfly Brought Me Dreams. The paintings on display provide a window into Huang’s universe through their central subject, Nini, the artist’s recently deceased rabbit and the inspiration for these 20 paintings.
■ Eslite Xinyi Bookstore (誠品信義店), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5樓). The gallery is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 8789-3388 X1588
■ Until Sept. 1
Taiwanese illustrator Red Capsule (紅膠囊) branches out into painting with Mr Red Solo Exhibition (花雨使者─柔軟天才的柔軟紅膠囊個展). Though the medium is different, the artist retains the same dreamlike images — some frightening, others humorous — that are hallmarks of his visual style.
■ Capital Art Center (首都藝術中心), 2F, 343, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段343號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Call (02) 2775-5268 for more information
■ Until Aug. 28
Belgian ceramist Antonino Spoto’s work, on display in Containers That Are No More Containing, employs geometrical forms such as cylinders and spheres to create unique and simple bowls and basins fired in hues of vibrant orange and yellow.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (北北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9:30am to 5pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 8677-2727
■ Until Aug. 16
Self-Modification (自我的重塑) is a solo exhibit by Tang Jo-hung (黨若洪), the 2008 Liao Chi-chun Oil Painting Award grand prizewinner. The artist culls symbols from disparate media to investigate issues of identity through realistic paintings of his dog, Cookey.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656
■ Until Sept. 27
Writing Words, Writing Forms — Me (寫字.寫相—我) is a solo exhibit by Ho Chia-hsing (何佳興). Ho’s illustrations
merge poetry with drawing as a means of looking at the relationship between sight
and bodily sensations.
■ Shin Leh Yuan Art Space (新樂園藝術空間), 15-2, Ln 11, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市中山北路二段11巷15-2號). Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm. Tel: (02) 2561-1548
■ Until Aug. 16
Land, Life & Love (大地、生命與愛戀) is a solo exhibit by Taiwanese artist Hwang Buh-ching (黃步青) of his early oil paintings, which are intimately bound up with Taiwan’s natural environment.
■ Jin-Zhi Gallery (金枝藝術), 41-3 Sinfu Village, Yuanli Township, Miaoli County (苗栗縣苑裡鎮新復里41-3號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm. For a viewing call (03) 786-4858
■ Until Sept. 20
New York-based artist Joshua Balgos’ video Whatever It Takes explores an individual’s obsession with the perfect body, the ideal job and the relationship that everyone dreams of.
■ Taipei National University of Arts — Kuandu Museum of Arts (台北藝術大學關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Beitou Dist, Taipei City (台北市北投區學園路1號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm. Tel: (02) 2896-1000 X2432
■ Until Sept. 20
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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