Lush gardens, open fields and orchards are among the landscapes Kuo Fang-rong (郭芳榕) depicts in the bucolic paintings at his solo exhibition at Singart. Kuo’s realist eye for detail suggests a bountiful world that one wants to get lost in.
■ Singart (新心藝術館), 67 Shengli Rd, Tainan City (台南市勝利路67號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 8pm; closed Mondays and every second and forth Sunday.
Tel: (06) 275-3957
■ Until Feb. 5
Frontiers Beyond the World (在世界之外的邊境) is a solo exhibition of Chinese landscape ink paintings by Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-tao (吳繼濤).
■ Moon Gallery (月臨畫廊), 6, Ln 589, Yingcai Rd, Taichung City (台中市403英才路589巷6號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm. Tel: (04) 2371-1219
■ Until Jan. 31
Making Waves (漢字弄湖) is a group exhibition of contemporary painting, installation and sculpture from Taiwan, Japan and China that seeks to highlight the latest art trends in Asia.
■ Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂), 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號). Open daily from 9am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2598-7557 X117
■ Until Jan. 11
Although the Chinese-language title of Chinese artist Qi Hai Ping’s (祁海平) exhibit was changed from “Chinese Ideology” (中國境界) for its Shanghai show to Ideology (境) for Taiwan, the contents of this solo exhibit of abstract paintings remain the same. Qi’s aesthetic style is a blend of abstract colors and shapes informed by traditional Chinese landscapes.
■ 5000 Years Fine Art Gallery
(五千年藝術空間), 295 Qingnian 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市青年一路295號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 9pm.
Tel: (07) 334-6848
■ Until Jan. 30
A new series of abstract expressionist paintings by Chien Chang-ta (簡昌達) are currently on display at Cathay United Art Center. Chien’s canvases employ a palette of primary colors tinged with white to depict snowy landscapes and mountain scenes that display a striking resemblance to the style of Chu Teh-chun’s (朱德群) later expressionist paintings.
■ 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 Jan. 16
Feeling the Chinese Characters: Interactive Installation Exhibition (文字互動展) offers a series of interactive installations that examine the evolution of Chinese characters and where they might be heading in the future.
■ Digital Arts Center (台北數位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, Taipei City (台北市福華路180號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 7736-0708
■ Until Jan. 24
Following on the heels of its popular inaugural R/evolution exhibit, which featured a wide array of modern Asian masters, Tina Keng Gallery (大未來耿畫廊) returns with R/evolution II, a group exhibition of contemporary artists from China and Taiwan. Participating artists include Hou I-ting (侯怡亭), Tu Wei-cheng (涂維政) and the ubiquitous Yang Mao-lin (楊茂林) from Taiwan and Peng Wei (彭薇) and Wang Tian Tian (王田田) from China.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (大未來耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2659-0798
■ Until Feb. 21
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