Capsules of Art (藝菌膠囊) is a touring exhibition of mixed media installation, painting and video by graduates of the National Taiwan University of the Arts (國立臺灣藝術大學) two-year bachelor’s program for working professionals. The show features works by 31 artists at three locations across Taipei. On the Net: www.facebook.com/capsulesofart.
■ Mei Ling Art Gallery (美齡藝廊), National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂), open daily from 9am to 6pm; ends Monday.
■ Tswei-xi Gallery (翠溪藝廊), Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館), 505 Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (臺北市信義區仁愛路4段505號), Open daily from 9am to 6pm; until June 3
Photo courtesy of June Hsu
■ Campus Building, National Taiwan University of the Arts (國立臺灣藝術大學教研大樓), 59 Daguan Rd Sec 1, New Taipei city (新北市大觀路一段59號); June 10 to June 14.
From Collection to Connection (從收藏到連結) is a rare look at the history of the Tao Aboriginal tribe (達悟族), an endangered people native to Orchid Island (蘭嶼). In 1956 and 1966, a Swiss priest who worked in Taiwan brought local art to Switzerland for fundraising and preservation. His collection included Tao pottery, an artisan hand-carved boat and other unique items that were then stored in Switzerland under Elisabeth Gschwind, until she helped arrange their return to Taiwan. After a public exhibition from May 17 to December 31, the collection will continue to be housed in the National Museum of Prehistory (國立臺灣史前文化博物) in Taitung.
■ National Museum of Prehistory, 1 Museum Rd, Taitung City (台東市博物館路1號), tel: (08) 938-1166, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
Photo courtesy of KMFA
■ Until Dec. 31
In Artists at TAV (藝術家們在TAV), three residents of the Taipei Artist Village offer art and a lunch party. Today, it’s Chen Po-I (陳伯義) with art based on kitchen wares and a menu inspired by Greater Tainan: salty rice pudding, crab cakes, traditional sausage, casserole duck, fish ball soup, crystal dumplings, mullet, sweet barley soup and other foods sourced from southern Taiwan, served with an artist’s talk on the visual detail and stories behind each dish. Upcoming lunches for Chiu Chao-Tsai (邱昭財) and Chin Cheng-Te (秦政德) are scheduled for 12pm on June 6 and June 20, respectively. Seating is limited and granted with written application on a first come, first served basis. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/artists.at.tav
■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號), tel: (02) 3393-7377. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
Photo courtesy of TAV
■ Opening reception today from 6pm to 8pm. Until July 6
Su Hui-yu (蘇匯宇), an acclaimed video artist and new father, presents his latest film about the uptick in whale deaths at a solo video exhibition in IT Park Gallery (伊通公園). Today, observers remark that whales are stranding themselves on beaches with increasing frequency. Su argues that the only thing changing is human perspective: Humans believe there are more such whale deaths because there are more humans living near coastlines to detect them. In Whale Mass Suicide (鯨魚集體自殺), Su revisits whale death through the inexpert, untaught and perhaps clearest human perspective — that of a toddler, his daughter, who watches him as he stages the movements of a beached whale.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 2F-3F, 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號2-3樓). tel: (02) 2507-7243. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Opening reception today at 7pm. Until June 21
Next Kite, Next Weather (未來風箏,未來氣象) presents Mark Geil and Chung-fan Chang (張宗帆), two art professors from Jackson, Mississippi. Geil presents photography that illuminates the similar logic behind two seemingly different phenomenon: the weather and displays in a museum. Chung’s Kite series is a look at color — both natural colors and disturbing human-made colors like neon — and how they work to shape human response.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2896-1000 ext 2432. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until July 6
Winners of the 2014 Kaohsiung Awards (高雄獎) are on view now at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館). The Kaohsiung Award is an annual prize that goes to Taiwanese artists in the fields of photography, painting, new media, mixed media and sketches. This year the competition drew about 600 participants and top prizes of NT$400,000 each went to five artists including Fan Si-chi (范思琪), who sketches with ballpoint pen, and oil painter Peng Tai-jen (彭泰仁) with his chaotic contemporary scenes of people interacting with vegetation.
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 80 Meishuguan Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 555-0331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm. Admission: Free
■ Until June 14
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
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