Taiwanese fashion designer Johan Ku
(古又文) has received considerable press coverage over the past few months since taking top honors in the avant-garde category at last year’s Gen Art’s Styles International Design Competition for his knitwear series Emotional Sculpture. Breakthrough: Johan Ku Wearable Sculpture Exhibition (破界•Breakthrough:古又文服裝雕塑展) features six works from that series plus four pieces from his Re-Sculpture line.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 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. Closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. General admission is NT$30
■ Until April 14
Contemporary Taiwanese sculptors Chu Fang-yi (朱芳毅), Yang Ming-tieh (楊明迭) and Liu Po-chun (劉柏村) come together in Three Elements (三元素), an exhibit of thought-provoking and innovative work that comments on the experiences of the artists while drawing attention to the textures of the materials that they use.
■ A Gallery (一畫廊), 22, Alley 36, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷36弄22號). Open Mondays to Saturdays from 1pm to 9pm. Tel (02) 2702-3327
■ Until April 25
Da Vinci — The Genius brings to life the consummate Renaissance man as inventor, artist, scientist, anatomist, engineer and architect. It displays interactive and life-size machines based on Da Vinci’s designs, which were crafted by Italian artisans from his codices. The show also exhibits studies of his most famous art and anatomical sketches as well as 3D animations of The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man. The traveling exhibition claims to be the most comprehensive ever assembled about the Italian polymath, who lived 500 years ago.
■ 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 6pm. Tel (02) 8692-5707. General admission is NT$200
■ Until May 3
Four artists from Japan and Taiwan working in wood, thread, paper and acrylic come together in Contemporary Airy Crafts From Japan to Taiwan, the second part of an exhibit that celebrates the mono-ha (literally “school of things”) approach to art. Mono-ha artists juxtapose natural materials such as earth, stone, and wood with human-made material like glass and paper to show the interdependent relationships between disparate objects. The four artists are Izumi Keiji, Iwasaki Takahiro, Liu Wen-hsuan (劉文瑄) and Llunc Lin (林昆穎).
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術中心), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until April 25
Contemporary Taiwanese sculptor Chen Sung (陳松志) continues her “obsession” with age in My Dear Wrinkle (親愛的瑞音蔻). The ideas for Chen’s sculptures begin with a fold, ridge or crease and are gradually formed into abstract shapes that, according to the artist’s statement, “present an aesthetic perception regarding the marginalization of [our] changing society.” To the less informed viewer, however, they look like stalagmites that suggest different stages of development.
■ Ever Harvest Art Gallery, 2F, 107, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段107號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2752-2353
■ Until March 28
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
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