Contemporary Taiwanese multi-media artist Mei Dean-E (梅丁衍) continues his examination of the country’s identity in Taiwan Cola (台灣可樂). For this exhibition, Mei, who is interested in the material symbols within the context of Taiwan’s past, seeks to re-interpret the genre of still-life realism anew as a means of examining Taiwan’s collective memory, starting with the Japanese colonial period and moving up to the end of Martial Law. Through deft manipulation of digital images, he creates a visual language of disparate objects — samurai swords, metal buckets emblazoned with the Pepsi symbol, a group of skeletons riding an antique bicycle — that manages to poke fun at the country’s history, while invoking a sense of nostalgia.
■ Star Crystal (藝星藝術中心), 16, Alley 52, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷52弄16號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7:30pm.
Tel: (02) 2577-0636
■ Until Dec. 27
Mayuka Yamamoto’s series of oil paintings Blue Flower employs a simple visual style to depict the innocence of youth. Her works feature young children dressed in a variety of animal costumes that give them a cute, fairy-tale appearance.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2570-0390
■ Until Dec. 6
Young Realistic Artists in Taiwan — Exhibition of Rising Power (台灣寫實新銳 — 新興力量油畫展) brings together four young Taiwanese artists born after 1970 who studied representational painting. Although trained in realist techniques, the four artists — Chou Cheng-wei’s (周政緯), Hu Yu-lun (吳育綸), Yen Ching-chieh (嚴靖傑) and Li Han-ching (李瀚卿) — have each developed their own signature styles, which range from surrealism to photo realism.
■ Imavision Gallery (晴山藝術中心), 13F, 224, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段224號13樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm.
Tel: (02) 2773-5155
■ Until Nov. 30
The Mysterious Universe (太龢之藏) is a solo exhibit by ink painter Bu Zi (卜茲), who applies expressionist brush stroke techniques to traditional calligraphic styles.
■ Butchart Contemporary Art Space, 155, Linong St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市立農街二段155號).
Open daily from 11am to 9pm.
Tel: (02) 2820-9920
■ Until Dec. 13
Desire to See (我想看) is a group exhibit of works by four of Taiwan’s hottest emerging painters, Lin Ru-dao (林儒鐸), Chen Min-tse (陳敏澤), Ming Tung-feng (馮彤) and Lin Wei-hsiang (林煒翔). The subject matter includes Western and Asian landscape painting, portraiture and cityscapes.
■ Cathay United Art Center (國泰世華藝術中心), 7F, 236 Dunhua N Rd, Taipei City (台北市敦化北路236號7樓). Open Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 6pm.
Tel: (02) 2717-0988
■ Until Dec. 12
Chen Chien-jung (陳建榮) seeks to create an ideal architectural space in his latest solo exhibition of multi-media paintings. Continuing with themes and styles he’s developed over the past decade, Chen invites viewers into an imaginary visual realm that is grounded in the real.
■ Tosee Art Agency (土思藝術), 41, Ln 100, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段100巷41號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 8pm.
Tel: (02) 2731-1411
■ Until Nov. 29
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