When Rembrandt Meets Audubon (當林布蘭遇見奧杜本) brings together the ornithological photographs of Flickr sensations John&Fish, the moniker for photographers Sung Yi-chang (宋宜璋) and Hsiao Tsun-hsien (蕭尊賢). Employing detailed compositions reminiscent of Rembrandt’s portraiture combined with an obvious fascination for all things avian, the brother and sister duo traveled to Taiwan’s remote areas to capture birds in their natural habitats and show them building nests, catching fish and feeding their young.
■ Taiwan International Visual Arts Center (台灣國際視覺藝術中心), 29, Ln 45 Liaoning St, Taipei City (台北市遼寧街45巷29號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2773-3347
■ Opening on Saturday at 3pm. Until Aug. 1
The German Institute in Taiwan will hold a photo and poster exhibit marking the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany. The 20 posters are from 1989 and 1990, when Germans celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The 12 photos on display show scenes from the two Germanys between the 1960s and 1990s.
■ Zhongshan MRT Station, Taipei City
■ Begins tomorrow. Until July 31
South Wind Blows (南風吹) is a solo exhibition of painting, sculpture and installation by Jun T. Lai (賴純純) at her recently opened gallery, Jun’ Space. The inaugural show, a kind of retrospective presented by and for the artist, illustrates Lai’s use of color in her art practice and presents work that she created during stints in Tokyo (1977) and Dulan (2007), as well as her ongoing Taipei-based output.
■ Jun’ Space (純’空間), 5, Ln 87, Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街87巷5號). Open Thursdays to Saturdays from 2pm to 9pm, or by appointment. Tel: (02) 2507-5128
■ Until Sept. 11
For those who can’t make it to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館) for the retrospective of Taiwan-born, London-based artist Richard Lin (林壽宇), Jia Art Gallery currently offers an abbreviated look at his work and career in a solo show entitled Soliloquy (獨白). Like the Kaohsiung exhibition, the gallery displays work covering Lin’s entire oeuvre.
■ 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
■ Until July 25
Time (時光) presents oil, acrylic and mixed media works by three emerging Chinese artists. The exhibitors — Yang Shuangqing (楊雙慶), Liu Yujie (劉玉潔) and Yu Hongbo (余洪波) — employ realist and surrealist styles to illustrate what they perceive to be the conformity, desperation and loneliness afflicting their country’s youth.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm. Tel: (02) 2577-5601
■ Until Aug. 8
Hyper-Perception is a group exhibition displaying digital images, sound art and interactive installations created by five multimedia artists that highlights the dearth of more subtle sensory experiences in contemporary life.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (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 Sept. 26
An Assorted Tapestry of Lustrous Beauty: Export Porcelains From the Museum Collection (錦繡自玲瓏-院藏貿易瓷特展) offers a comprehensive look at how the export of Chinese porcelain influenced the crafts of its neighbors. Divided into two sections, The Diversity of Chinese Export Porcelains and Exchanges in the Art and Craft of Ceramics, the exhibition examines the changes that took place in the styles and designs of Chinese export porcelain, ranging from the 9th century to the 19th century, and the influence Chinese ceramics had on firing practices in other
Asian countries.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號). Open daily from 9am to 5pm, and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2881-2021. Admission: NT$160
■ Until Aug. 1
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and