There has been a recent surge of interest in the life and work of self-taught artist Hung Tung (洪通). Following on the heels of a May retrospective mounted by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County Government (桃園縣政府文化局) comes Celestial Travel — A Transcendental Encounter of Hung Tung and Ye Yi-li (神.遊) at Gallery 100. The show brings together Hung Tung’s mystical folk art paintings with work by emerging artist Ye Yi-li (葉怡利) as a kind of a tribute to the former and a spotlight on his influence on the latter.
■ Gallery 100 (百藝畫廊), 6, Ln 30, Changan E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市長安東路一段30巷6號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2536-2120
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Aug. 29
Steeped in Western thought, the paintings of Chinese artist Hua Qing (華慶) juxtapose apes with scientific and mathematical symbols in his solo show I Think, Therefore I Am (我思故我在). Inspired by Descartes’ famous Latin dictum, cogito ergo sum, Hua investigates through impasto works the relationship between human beings and other species while re-examining the meaning of human civilization. Other works depict iconic monuments such as Stonehenge, placing these subjects in front of motifs culled from philosophy, literature, mathematics and art.
■ Asia Art Center (亞洲藝術中心) 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市建國南路二段177號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2754-1366
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Aug. 15
Considered by many as a pioneer of modern art in China (along with Lin Fengmian (林風眠)), Wu Dayu (吳大羽) influenced renowned artists such as Zao Wou-ki (趙無極) and Chu De-chun (朱德群) at his art school in Hangzhou, which is now the China Academy of Fine Arts. The paintings in this show reveal Wu’s passion for strong coloring reminiscent of Fauvism and the wild yet controlled brush strokes of expressionism.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 13, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷13號). Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am to 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2721-8488
■ Until Aug. 10
Time Machine and Anywhere Door (時光機與任意門) brings together artists who in various ways transform reality through meditative, surreal and occasionally absurdist installations. The inter-generational group of five artists from the UK and Taiwan use moving images to transport viewers to another place or time — real or imagined, past or future — while intentionally creating bridges between cultural motifs, histories and fictions.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 2F, 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm. Tel: (02) 2507-7243
■ Until Aug. 14
A Journey Through the Vineyards of Bordeaux (波爾多尋訪) is a solo exhibit of 10 impressionist-inspired landscape paintings by respected artist Yu So-ying (王守英).
■ 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 Aug. 7
Photographer Chou Yu-cheng (周育正) shifts gears with a solo exhibit of large-scale paintings that depict interior spaces using a warped sense of perspective.
■ La Chambre Art Gallery (小室藝廊), 31, Ln 52, Siwei Rd, Taipei City (台北市四維路52巷31號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2700-3689
■ Until Aug. 7
Women and Girl (女子女少) is a group show by eight female artists that combines painting, photography, video and installation to examine women’s roles in contemporary society and how they have changed over the past few decades.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Zhongshan Dist, Taipei City (台北市中山區伊通街47號地下一樓). Open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 2pm to 11pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm to 1am. Tel: (02) 2516-1060
■ Until Aug. 14
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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located