Open Flexibility: Innovative Contemporary Ink Art (開顯與時變-創新水墨藝術展) is a group exhibition that brings together 15 artists from Taiwan and 12 artists from China. Curated by Liu Yung-jen (劉永仁), the show charts developments in the genre over the past half century by displaying contemporary ink paintings alongside modern Taiwanese ink paintings from the 1960s and Chinese experimental ink paintings from the 1980s.
■ 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 daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. Admission is free
■ Until Jan. 17
The Ceramic Road of Southeast Asia: Pottery Villages, Ancient and Contemporary Ceramics (海上絲路.看見東南亞-古陶瓷、陶瓷村、現代陶藝) takes a comprehensive look at Asian pottery and ceramicists. The displays, consisting of artifacts from Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, among other countries, track the different styles, from ranging from prehistory to modern times, that emerged in the region.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (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 Feb. 28
Inner Heart Memories (心象追憶) is a solo exhibition by Taiwanese contemporary artist Chang Pei-chun (張培均). Chang’s abstract paintings explore the tension between the real and the imaginary and the rational and the sensual.
■ Dynasty Art Gallery (朝代藝術), 41 Leli Rd, Taipei City (台北市樂利路41號). For a viewing call 0933-804-092
■ Until Nov. 17
Mind Topology — The Phases of 2009 Korea is a group exhibition of contemporary art by Korean artists jointly sponsored by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art and South Korea’s Gwangju Museum of Art. Through installation, painting, video and animation, the show examines the cultural and spiritual similarities between Taiwan and South Korea.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung (國立台灣美術館), 2, Wucyuan W Rd Sec 1, Taichung City (台中市五權西路一段2號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Tel: (04) 2372-3552
■ Until Jan. 10
Multi-talented Taiwanese contemporary artist Earthstone Chu (周于棟) returns with a solo exhibit of oil paintings entitled Understood Entanglements (了牽了扯).
■ Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊), 1F-1, 30, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段30號1樓之1). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm.
Tel: (02) 2591-4302
■ Begins Friday
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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
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