Three Ukrainian artists draw upon their country’s rich folk traditions in The Singing Birch Forest, a group show. Natasha Perekhodenko’s wildly playful paintings are inspired by the patterns and color of Ukrainian folk costumes; Roman Nogin’s vibrant expressionist paintings are filled with rich textures drawn from rural scenery; and Volodymyr Neskoromnyi utilizes impasto brushwork to create realistic and often humorous paintings that reflect the lives of ordinary Chinese.
■ Wonderful Time Art Space (美好時光), 8, Ln 26, Beiyuan St, Tainan City (台南市北園街26巷8號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 3pm to 9pm. Tel: (06) 275-6072
■ Begins Saturday. Until Jan. 23
Photo courtesy of Han Art Space
Phase Transition of the Story (寓言的相變) is an exhibit of video, drawings and installation by Lu Chih-yun (盧之筠) and Japanese artist Daisuke Nagaoka. Lu guts antique furniture and home appliances, which she then refashions into bizarre sculptural installations, while Nagaoka’s animations and drawings serve as surreal emblems of the relationship between humans and nature.
■ 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. Tel: (02) 2707-6942
■ A panel discussion will be held on Saturday at 3pm, with the opening reception taking place at 4pm. Until Jan. 16
Photo courtesy of Project Fulfill Art Space
Photo Taipei is an annual art fair devoted to the promotion of photography and video art. This year’s fair brings together 26 galleries from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, Spain and Germany and begins with a screening of Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) Madame Butterfly (蝴蝶夫人). Photo Taipei also features several talks about the state of contemporary photography and video art. Comprehensive details in Chinese and English can be found at www.photo-taipei.com.
■ Sunworld Dynasty Hotel (盛世王朝大飯店), 100 Dunhua N Rd, Taipei City (台北市敦化北路100號). Tel: (02) 2578-5630
■ Opening reception tomorrow from 7pm to 9pm. The fair runs from Friday to Sunday, 12pm to 8pm. Admission: NT$200
The Floral Journey (採花記) is a solo exhibit of works by painter Walasse Ting (丁雄泉), who died earlier this year.
■ 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 Jan. 2
Black on Red (堆紅罩黑) presents 30 lacquer paintings, rendered in an abstract style, by Chinese artist Su Xiaobai (蘇笑柏).
■ 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 Jan. 16
Three Masters Crossing the Sea (渡海三家) offers a microscopic look at the evolution of ink painting through the work of three of its finest modern practitioners: Zhang Daqian (張大千, aka Chang Dai-chien), Pu Hsin-yu (溥心畬) and Huang Chun-pi (黃君璧). The exhibit brings together 100 works with a total value of NT$20 billion, according to a press release.
■ Chan Liu Art Museum (長流美術館) B1, 63, Renai Rd Sec 2, Taipei City(台北市仁愛路二段63號B1). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2321-6603
■ Until Jan. 30
As Covering (之於蓋覆) is a solo show of video installation and sculpture by Ya-chu Kang (康雅筑). Kang uses everyday materials such as junk mail, newspapers and old clothes to explore the relationship between tangible objects — clothing, bags and packaging — and subjective phenomena such as memories and public space.
■ Tosee Art Agency (土思藝術), 41, Ln 100, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段100巷41號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 8pm. Tel: (02) 2731-1411
■ Until Dec. 31
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