My Easy World (自在的雲川) presents 46 color glue paintings by Chan Yu-chin (詹玉瑾). The exhibit’s title is based on Chan’s Buddhist name, cloud and river, and like the artist’s spiritual moniker, these hyperrealist paintings of mountains and seas and landscapes generate a sense of calm.
■ National Taiwan Museum of the Arts (國立台灣美術館), B1 Gallery, 2, Wucyuan W Rd Sec 1, Taichung City (台中市五權西路一段2號), tel: (04) 2372-3552. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm. Admission: Free
■ Until March 3
Wang Liang-yin (王亮尹) continues her depiction of all things saccharine — jelly beans, cupcakes and sundaes — in her solo show of acrylic paintings Blending Fantasy — You and Me (攪拌器的你的我反覆幻想,尤其是在清醒的時候). For this show, Wang applies her vibrant palette to portrait painting.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Until Jan. 30
There are three worthy exhibits currently on view at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. On the third floor, Modernity and Foresight (現代.前瞻) is a centennial exhibit on the life and work of Chang Chi-hua (張啟華), one of the first Taiwanese artists to study in Japan. Chang helped to pioneer the Western-influenced genres of landscape and portrait painting in Taiwan and is hailed by the museum as an important figure in the development of painting in Kaohsiung. On the fourth floor, Earthline presents work by Colin Offord, an Australian artist whose abstract paintings are deeply influenced by the natural landscape and cultural characteristics of Australia. Offord’s artistic language is a combination of Eastern and Western arts. Also on the fourth floor, Flowing, Kaohsiung (流.高雄) is an exhibit curated by Jason Shih (施承澤), who showcases the site-specific installation work of Huang Pei-ying (黃沛瀅). Commissioned specifically for the gallery space, Huang piles, stacks and distorts cardboard to create a 3D-like space that resembles abstract paintings.
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 80 Meishuguan Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 555-0331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Admission: Free
■ Modernity and Foresight, until March 27. Earthline and Flowing, Kaohsiung, until March 6.
The Moon (當時明月) is an exhibit of new works by Pan Hsin-hua (潘信華). Pan’s collage paintings are reinterpretations of the bizarre spatial experiments of Ming Dynasty landscape painters combined with a compositional framework reminiscent of the Buddhist frescoes at China’s Dunhuang Caves, also known as the Mogao Caves.
■ Moon Gallery (月臨畫廊), 6, Ln 589, Yingcai Rd, Taichung City (台中市403英才路589巷6號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm. Tel: (04) 2371-1219
■ Until Feb. 26
The paintings of Lee Shi-chi (李錫奇) are not unlike looking down on a city’s topography from an aircraft. These abstract works of grids and geometrical shapes, currently on view at Capital Art Center, continue his exploration of Chinese colors, symbols and materials using a Western aesthetic.
■ 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), tel: (02) 2775-5268. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Until Jan. 28
Tan Kuo-chih’s (譚國智) solo exhibition of oil paintings demonstrates his fascination for Taiwan’s landscapes. Mountains, rivers and fields are among the places Tan depicts to illustrate the country’s beauty.
■ Der Horng Art Gallery (德鴻畫廊), 1 Jhongshan Rd, Tainan City (台南市中山路1號), tel: (06) 227-1125. Open daily from 10am to 9pm
■ Until Feb. 15
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
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