Mirror of the Heart (心境之航 ─ 張翠容) is a solo exhibit by Chang Tsui-jung (張翠容). Chang’s parlor paintings seductively bring the viewer into a feminine world through surreal works composed of figures with garishly attired female bodies topped with the heads of birds and animals such as peacocks, cats and beetles.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366 Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號 ). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2797-1100
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 23
Change (變) presents a retrospective look at the work of China-born, Taiwan-based artist Li Chien-chung (李建中). Li dabbles freely in a broad range of media — oil painting, color ink, engraving, acrylic and calligraphy — to create abstract paintings that possess a feeling of boundless space.
■ Lee Gallery (黎畫廊), 10, Ln 175, Da-an Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市大安路一段175巷10號). For a viewing call (02) 2325-6688
■ Until Sunday
An exhibit of new oil paintings by Huang Ming-chun (黃敏俊) is currently on view at Fish Art. Huang’s latest work delves into portraiture — a marked change from his earlier floral, urban and landscape paintings.
■ Fish Art Center (秋刀魚藝術中心), 137 Jihu Rd, Taipei (台北市基湖路137號). Open Sunday to Friday from 11am to 10:30pm. Call (02) 2532-3800
■ Until Jan. 30
Mediaholic (媒體大哼) has gained considerable attention in Taipei’s art circles because it is the first time that the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei) has devoted the majority of its space to a Taiwanese artist. The exhibition showcases the work of interdisciplinary artist Ni Tsai-chin (倪再沁), presenting literature, painting, installation and sculpture created by the artist over the past 30 years.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2552-3720. Admission: NT$50
■ Until Feb. 13
Designed specifically for children, From Nature to Art (KoKo 自然) presents 12 landscape paintings from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s (TFAM) permanent collection as a means of showing how artists transform natural scenery into landscape paintings. The exhibit offers on-site activities for children so that they too can become landscape artists.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (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 9am to 10pm. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. Admission: NT$30
■ Until May 29
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