Whisper (呢喃) is a solo exhibition at Taipei’s 1839 Little Gallery by Wu Cheng (吳箏). Wu’s black-and-white photos are inspired by the time he spent in Shanghai working in various photography studios. The upturned easels, strewn paintbrushes and graffiti-splattered walls mirror the anxiety artists can experience when struggling to finish their next work of art. Wu’s photography essentially captures how the art studio is like a living organism, mostly because it’s a reflection of the artist and his or her ideals as they evolve.
■ 1839 Little Gallery (1839 小藝廊), 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
■ Until March 22
Photo courtesy of Frees Art Space
If the 1939 film the Wizard of Oz teaches us anything, it’s that “there’s no place like home” (and that ruby slippers are cool). Inspired by Dorothy’s journey to Emerald City, artist Gao Ya-ting’s (高雅婷) video montage, taken from segments of the movie, reconsiders the question of the idea of “home.” His work is currently on display in Frees Art Space, along with Kuo Chia-ling (郭嘉羚), Lee Tzu-ling (李姿玲) and Huang Pei-ju (黃珮如) in a group show, Immersing In (彼岸). What binds the artwork together is the idea of unattainability, whether this is finding your way “home,” feeling nostalgic for a lost past or pursuing lofty dreams. In order to achieve this, the artists utilize various symbolism from the ocean and clouds, to popular culture.
■ Frees Art Space (福利社), B1, 82, Xinsheng N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段82號B1); tel: (02) 2585-7600. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11am to 7pm, Saturdays 1:30pm to 9pm, closed Sundays and Mondays
■ Until March 28
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Buddha figures are vaguely distinguishable in Chinese artist Wang Zixuan’s (王子璇) acrylic paintings. Hidden behind grainy layers of grey paint resembling ancient stone rubbings — some more obvious than others — each Buddha painting seems to serve as a cathartic marker of Wang’s spiritual journey. Yet the paintings have a calming, meditative quality. A former musician and practicing Buddhist, Wang has participated in the restoration of several pagodas in China’s Yunnan Province. Her solo exhibition, Admirable Freedom (仰觀自在), opens in Taipei’s Tina Keng Gallery tomorrow.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until March 29
Photo courtesy of Lin & Lin Gallery
Le Passeur may mean “gondolier” in French, but Liu Shih-tung’s (劉時棟) solo exhibition entitled The Passeur (望游) at Taipei’s Lin & Lin Gallery does not evoke French — nor Venetian — imagery. Liu, who hails from Miaoli County and completed an artist residency in Los Angeles in 2011, is best known for his colorful collage paintings. Inspired by Taiwan’s nature and folk traditions, his collage paintings of fish gliding gracefully in ponds and flowers sprouting from rocks evoke an idyllic cheeriness. Liu worked in installation earlier in his career, which may explain why his subjects possess effortless movement — like that of a gondolier.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16 Dongfeng St, Taipei City (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until March 29
Photo courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
Like many other artists, writers and creative types, Romanian artist Ana Maria Micu spends most of her days cooped up inside her studio — not very exciting, right? But Micu, for one, has learned how to make productive use of her space. In other words, she paints things she sees in her home from different angles. Although it may sound a bit dull, Micu’s paintings manage to transcend the mundane. Her artwork serves instead as a highly introspective visual diary. “Art is in a symbiotic association with the routines of life,” according to the gallery notes. Depictions of unfinished paintings plastered on walls and materials strewn across the floor add a personal touch. Micu’s solo exhibition, Self-Portrait with Indoor Plant (凝視自我), opens tomorrow at Taipei’s Mind Set Art Center.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), 16-1, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生南路三段16-1號), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 6pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 4
If you’re into television shows like CSI or Criminal Minds, then Action at a Distance (超距作用) is the right exhibition for you. Held at IT Park Gallery in Taipei, this solo exhibition by Chen Yin-ju (陳瀅如), includes the artist’s harrowing black-and-white video installations about human anatomy, medical research and quantum physics. In addition to being quite the science nerd, Chen is also a history buff. Her past works — mostly videos but also drawings — have focused on the function of power in countries like Cambodia and East Timor during the genocides. While the exhibition might be a bit of a damper for happy art-goers, it is nevertheless educative and provocative.
■ 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). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm. Tel: (02) 2507-7243
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 4
Trained as an architect with a Master’s degree from Yale University, Kuo Szu-ming’s (郭思敏) iron and stainless steel sculptures exude a precise and luminescent beauty. According to Kuo, creating art “is similar to writing a poem where precision and concision are required.” She chooses iron because the rust which forms over time reveals much about the environment that the sculpture has been exposed to. Stainless steel on the other hand does not corrode as easily as iron, thus making it easier to hide its true age. Kuo’s solo exhibition Inner Space (內照空間), opens in Taipei’s Eslite Gallery tomorrow.
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5樓), tel: (02) 8789-3388. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 5
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and