Asia Art Center II is currently exhibiting the works of Xinjiang-born Chinese artist Qin Feng (秦風) in the aptly named exhibition, Qin Feng Solo Exhibition (秦風個展). Qin, who started his career dabbling in the Chinese avant-garde, went on to live in both Germany and the US, where he became known for his ability to synthesize elements of Western expressionism with Chinese ink painting. He paints with acrylic on linen, or ink on cotton paper, the result of which gives his work a quality that’s delicate and stoic at the same time. His choice of large, circular motifs is meant to convey a belief in the power of wisdom, as well as the idea of civilizations being cyclical. Besides that, his gargantuan-sized paintings are also pretty to stare at.
■ Asia Art Center II (亞洲藝術中心二館), 93, Lequn 2nd Rd, Taipei City (台北市樂群二路93號), tel: (02) 8502-7939. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm
■ Until Feb. 28
Photo courtesy of National Museum of History
From using the museum’s facade to project “apparitions” to hosting artists who use face masks to create gun sculptures, MOCA, Taipei has been doing an exceptional job at continually introducing new media and new ideas. Their latest exhibition is pretty cool too. Held at a tunnel in Zhongshan MRT Station, The Image of Virtuality (空相) features a video presentation by Ma Chao (馬超) and will be displayed across five television screens. It uses Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky’s 1938 painting Colorful Ensemble (a beautifully convoluted piece of abstract art) as inspiration and focuses on the relationship between abstract painting and digital art, especially their conceptual overlaps. The ultimate goal, the exhibition notes state, is to convey an “appearance of nothingness.” It’ll be interesting and puzzling to see how Ma will manage to achieve that.
■ MOCA Video Underground (藝術一條街), Zhongshan Metro Mall Exit R9 TV Corridor (捷運中山地下街 R9 出口電視牆), tel: (02) 2552-3720
■ Opens tomorrow. Until March 6
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The works of famed UK web animator and occasional music video director Cyriak Harris are currently on display at MOCA, Taipei. The exhibition, Hyperplasia — Mutation (增生— 異變), consists of a selection of eight of Harris’ best (and creepiest) works since 2007, including one where he takes an image of his face and replicates it numerous times, mimicking the manner in which abnormal cells replicate. Spoiler alert: there’s also a lot of deformed sheep and clones of cats and teddy bears in his animated shorts. In other words, he’s good at introducing disturbing themes through the use of cute, furry animals. Maybe he does it to poke fun at social ills or maybe he’s just a little kooky, but it’s safe to say that this exhibition isn’t for the light-hearted.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until March 27
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The National Museum of History is currently hosting Taiwan’s first-ever large scale exhibition of the works of late American artist and social activist Keith Haring. The exhibition, Keith Haring: Multiplexism (普普‧塗鴉凱斯哈林特展), includes a vast selection of Haring’s pop art-style paintings from his cheerful and bold pieces in the early ‘80s to his more distressing (but still colorful) work leading up to his HIV diagnosis in 1988. His work was not only introspective, but it also served as social commentary on New York City street life in the 80s. The griminess of the city and the struggle to survive is beautifully conveyed in the bold, convoluted lines and intertwining human figures of Haring’s work. Haring, who was openly gay, never shied away from politically-charged topics in his artwork. Sexuality was a constant theme and his later work seemed to have alluded to the AIDS epidemic.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號), tel: (02) 2361-0270. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until April 10
Photo courtesy of Asia Art Center II
Yang Mao-lin’s (楊茂林) artistic career is as long as it is eclectic, as is revealed in Made in Taiwan: A Retrospective of Yang Mao Lin (Made in Taiwan:楊茂林回顧展). Yang, who came of age in the turbulent ‘80s, spent three decades creating everything from avant-garde paintings to bronze sculptures of sea animals. His earlier work touched upon political themes more, documenting Taiwan’s transition to a multi-party democracy. It was also around this time that Yang created the “Made in Taiwan” paintings — a series that contain motifs such as fists and muscles that alluded to the struggles for Taiwan to democratize . The labeling is also a pun on the “Made in Taiwan” trinkets and souvenirs that Taiwan exports, and is, in a sense, an attempt to explore the critical potential of art from the perspective of Taiwanese history and culture. While Yang’s more recent works, especially his sculptures, focused more on the concept of cultural hybridity, he still fixates on the notion of “Made in Taiwan,” in particular, how local culture can coexist with foreign influences.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (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
■ Until April 24
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