As Free as the Wind (就像風一樣自由) is a solo exhibit of oil paintings by Chinese artist Luo Dan (羅丹). Luo’s paintings are Dionysian depictions of rebellious rock stars rendered in saturated blues and reds.
■ Ever Harvest Art Gallery (日升月鴻畫廊), 2F, 107, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段107號2樓), tel: (02) 2752-2353. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Oct. 9
Photo courtesy of Ever Harvest Gallery
Time Packet (時空封包) is a solo exhibit of sculptural installation by Ku Shih-yung (顧世勇). Chairs, tables, pictures, radios and children’s toys are among items Ku found at flea markets and abandoned houses that he used to create this series of complex works.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號), tel: (02) 2507-7243. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 7pm. Until Oct. 15
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Contemporary Classics (菁典當代) is a group exhibit of 10 emerging artists working in oil, acrylic and ink that covers various genres including realism, surrealism, abstraction and Chinese ink painting.
■ 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), tel: (02) 2702-3327. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 1pm to 9pm
■ Opening reception on Friday at 5pm. Until Oct. 22
Eslite Gallery is holding a retrospective exhibit of paintings from Kuo Chwen’s (郭淳) later period. Whereas Kuo’s mid-period output communicated the artist’s observations about society and the shortcomings of human behavior through surreal works composed of gigantic insects and animals invading familiar spaces, his later paintings are more abstract, centering on an interpretation of his inner thoughts that uses the symbol of human bones.
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5摟), tel: (02) 8789-3388 X1588. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 16
In collaboration with China’s Other Gallery, the Taiwan International Visual Art Center (TIVAC) brings together four Taiwanese and seven Chinese artists for a touring exhibit titled Hypnosis (催眠). Comprising interactive installations, photography and video art, the exhibit seeks to reveal the cultural symbols hidden in the contemporary art of both countries, particularly the shift from overarching political ideology to individual expression.
■ 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), tel: (02) 2773-3347. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 16
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