Renowned ink painter and calligrapher Guan Da-ching (官大欽) demonstrates his mastery over both mediums in Painting and Calligraphy by Guan Da-ching (官大欽書畫展). The exhibit features a series of his recently completed Chinese landscape paintings and works of calligraphy.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Mondays. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. Admission: NT$30
■ Until Feb. 28
Four artists employ a Japanese manga aesthetic in Stripes, Dots and Skulls in Assorted Shapes, Colors and Sizes (點點與骨髏頭). Though largely lacking variation in shape as suggested in the title, the oil and acrylic paintings in different sizes offer a vibrant and surreal look at childhood fantasies and dreams.
■ 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 Feb. 28
Kuo Chia-ling (郭嘉羚) and Lai Pei-yu (賴珮瑜) deconstruct Paris and New York in Visitor. The joint exhibition of video works examines the relationship between the artists and cities they’ve lived in or visited as a means of expressing their feelings about various aspects of life in foreign urban centers.
■ Mot Arts, 3F, 22 Fuxing S Rd
Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段22號3樓). Open Mondays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
Tel: (02) 2751-8088
■ Until March 14
Curator Chen Yung-hsien (陳永賢) brings together 13 contemporary Taiwanese artists to examine digital technology and visual perception in Beyond the Mirage: New Media Art Exhibition (幻象之丘:新媒體藝術展). Interactive performances, sculptures, sound installations and animation illustrate how new technologies have evolved to become a central issue within the development of New Media Art.
■ Hong-Gah Museum (鳳甲美術館), 5F, 260, Daye Rd, Taipei City (台北市大業路260號5樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 5:30pm. Tel: (02) 2894-2272
■ Until March 7
Contemporary painter Kay H. Lin (林桂香) draws on two separate traditions in her solo show Lost Horizon (詩情畫意). Her large-scale paintings merge Chinese landscape painting with tempestuous brush strokes reminiscent of abstract expressionism.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine
Arts (關渡美術館), Taipei National University of the Arts (台北藝術大學), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號). Open Tuesdays to
Sundays from 10am to 5pm.
Tel: (02) 2896-1000 X2432
■ Until March 28
Note: Call ahead to check opening times over the Lunar New Year vacation
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
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would