Contemporary artist Wang Liang-yin (王亮尹), known for still-life paintings of desserts, turns to the birthday cake at solo exhibition Happy Birthday, My Dear (親愛的,生日快樂). In bold colors and ricocheting brushstrokes, she depicts cakes and people on their birthdays. The subjects are caught in the moment before the candles are blown out and the audience applauds, a moment in which they suddenly discover themselves alone in a state of “clarity and bewilderment,” Wang writes in the gallery notes.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (臺北市立美術館), 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 July 20
Photo courtesy of NTMOFA
At Floating California (漂浮加州), Bryan Ida from Los Angeles presents abstract cityscapes that lure in the eye with their simple geometric balance and calm hues. On closer look these views of urban streets and skyline have a rich visual complexity, featuring layers of acrylic paint that are separated by epoxy resin and appear to lift slightly from the 2-D plane.
■ Bluerider Art, 9F, 25-1, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (北市仁愛路四段25-1號9樓), tel: (02) 2752-2238, open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9am to 6pm
■ Opens Sunday. Until July 30
Photo courtesy of Bluerider Art
Group f/64 Masters Photography Exhibition features American artists devoted to “pure” photography — sharp images that depict the world “as it is.” Founded in San Francisco in 1932, Group f/64 was named after f/64, the smallest aperture available in large-format view cameras at the time. Using the smallest aperture provides the maximum depth of field, allowing for the largest percentage of the picture to be in sharp focus. The retrospective airs a filmed lecture at 3pm every Saturday, starting from June 21.
■ 1839 Contemporary Gallery (當代藝廊), B1, 120 Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市延吉街120號B1), tel: (02) 2778-8458. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm. Free admission
■ Until July 13
Observing the Nature in Silence (靜觀自然) is a retrospective exhibition for leading impressionist Wang Shou-ying (王守英). In the 1970s, Wang helped found the Representative Painting Society (具象畫會), a group that led artists on expeditions to paint landscapes. The show collects around 60 of his paintings that date back to this period, spanning themes including forests, children, the waterfront and mountains. Wang’s scenes de-emphasize objectivity and are marked instead by a consistent warm refinement and gentle plays of light and shadow.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA, 國立臺灣美術館), 2, Wuquan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市西區五權西路一段2號) tel: (04) 2372-3552, open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until August 3
At The Spiritual Portrait (人間草紙—靈魂的墨漬), Lo Chan-peng (羅展鵬) is showing 30 pieces of contemporary ink art. Blending traditional ink calligraphy and techniques of western realism, he creates close-up portraits of faces that reveal their spirit.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 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 June 29
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
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
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