Timed, perhaps, to coincide with the Taipei International Flora Expo, Blooming (心花朵朵開) presents vibrant and “superflat” flower paintings by Chinese-born, Taiwan-based artist Wu Hao (吳昊). If the curators are to be believed, Wu’s work can be reinterpreted through the lens of contemporary artists such as Takashi Murakami who popularized the superflat genre.
■ Metaphysical Art Gallery (形而上畫廊), 7F, 219, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段219號7樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2711-0055
■ Opening reception, including magic show and acrobatic performance on Saturday at 3pm. Until Oct. 3
The Taipei Biennial (2010臺北雙年展) program introduction begins with a question: “One can easily imagine an exhibition of political art, but what about an exhibition on the politics of art?” The “politics of art” will take center stage at the biennial by exploring the origin, function, size and scale of the biennial and, perhaps more interestingly, raise questions about the movers and shakers behind these events. The exhibition literature continues: “By turning an exhibition inward and, in fact, against its grain — dissolving the supposed boundaries between artistic and curatorial practices, discourses and reception — this exhibition unravels the conventionally discrete artistic presentation that is otherwise mystified.” Curators Lin Hong-john (林宏璋) and Tirdad Zolghadr attempt to illustrate the multifarious elements that go into making a biennial by revealing the social circumstances upon which art is created and consumed. With so much focus on politics, one might be left wondering about aesthetics and beauty. But perhaps politics is the new beauty. As the program says: “The division between the social and the aesthetic is no longer distinguishable and thus, rendered obsolete.” Expect a lot of new media and performance art. On the Net: www.taipeibiennial.org.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM — 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. Portions of the biennial are being staged at other locations throughout Taipei. For complete details (in English and Chinese) go to: www.taipeibiennial.org
■ Until Nov. 14
Mountains, hot springs and seascapes are among the places represented in A Piece of Place
(地的片段), a three-person exhibition of new works by Huang Pin-ling (黃品玲), Bai Cian-yu (白倩于) and Pan Shih-hao(潘士豪). The artists are united in their use of earthy colors to represent their own ideas about Taiwan’s unique locales and people.
■ 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 Sept. 25
John Fung’s (馮建中) solo exhibit of photo collages at Taiwan International Visual Arts Center draws attention to the environmental and spatial problems of large cities. Fung points his camera upwards and through a process of multi-exposure and overlapping of scenes creates a sometimes dizzying, sometimes expansive perspective. The absence of any flora or fauna in Fung’s photos suggests an unhealthy concrete environment.
■ Taiwan International Visual Arts Center (TIVAC — 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
■ Until Oct. 3
Arguably one of the most important modern interpreters of traditional ink brush painters, Liu Kuo-sung (劉國松) has received considerable attention over the past few years because of renewed interest in modern (i.e. Western) Chinese ink brush painting. Though this solo show at Capital Art offers little that is new in terms of themes, it is worth catching because it displays some of Liu’s smaller and lesser-known works.
■ Capital Art Center (首都藝術中心), 2F, 343, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段343號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2775-5268
■ Until Sept. 25
China-born, US-based artist Pan Qiliu (潘其流) follows the tradition of the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Lin Fengmian (林風眠), who is considered by many scholars as the pioneer of modern Chinese oil painting. More commonly known as a sculptor, Pan shows that he is an accomplished interpreter of abstract expressionism in works that are notable for the application of low-relief, which gives the paintings greater depth.
■ 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 Sept. 26
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
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