On Asphalt is a solo exhibition of video and installation by Indonesian artist Jompet Kuswidanonto. Kuswidanonto’s work examines the “spaces where contestation, negotiations and juxtapositions among different cultures take place.” His new works take inspiration from The Great Post Road, a roadway built in Java in 1808 and serving as a route to distribute goods and people. This “urban culture” that resulted serves as the inspiration for the works on display.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), 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), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 5pm. Until Sept. 16
Kalos Gallery (真善美畫廊) will hold a commemorative exhibition of work by Chen Ting-shih (陳庭詩). Chen’s prints, abstract paintings and metal sculptures blend Western abstract art forms with Eastern cultural sensibilities to create “a philosophical world that successfully portrays the essence of things beyond mere images,” according to the gallery’s press blurb.
■ Kalos Gallery (真善美畫廊), 269, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段269號), tel: (02) 2836-3452. Open daily from 10am to 6:30pm, closed Sundays
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Sept. 8
Autumn Rustling (秋瑟) is a solo exhibition of painting by Tzeng Yong-ning (曾雍甯). Tzeng draws on his considerable skill in Chinese ink painting to produce a series of multicolor and monochrome landscapes that are visually calming.
■ Nou Gallery (新畫廊), 232, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段232號), tel: (02) 2700-0239. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Sept. 9
Meet Taipei gathers together 33 works of painting and sculpture by 21 Shanghai artists who the curators believe are representative of the city’s modern and contemporary art scene. Artists include Yan Peiming (嚴培明), Ding Yi (丁乙), Zhou Changjiang (周長江) and Li Xiangyang (李向陽) — artists who reveal that Shanghai is more than just a place to make a buck.
■ 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), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Admission: NT$30
■ Until Sept. 16
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
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