Chen Sung-chih (陳松志) has a knack for seeking out disused or recycled items and reassembling them in a way that is dainty and appealing. His previous work focused on old magazine pages from printing factories across Taiwan, which he crumbled and stuffed inside socks or reshaped to form needle-like objects. His latest exhibition, which is entitled Upside Down (是與非的模樣) and held at IT Park Gallery, builds on this idea of objects being deceiving. The exhibition is inspired by Chen’s recent stay in New York, a city which he found to be gritty and grimy, but also beautiful and full of promise. He reassembles a variety of found objects and trash including printing paper and transparent plastic bags to look like flowers blooming during spring (indeed, New York during spring is very lovely).
■ 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
■ Until April 2
Photo courtesy of IT Park Gallery
The works of the late Chinese expressionist artist Wu Dayu (吳大羽) are currently on display at Tina Keng Gallery. Entitled The Drawer of Wu Dayu (吳大羽的抽屜), the exhibition includes a selection of Wu’s paintings throughout his life which were influenced by Western impressionism and cubism from his time in Paris in the 1920s. Wu was persecuted under the Cultural Revolution for his flamboyant style of painting which included a lot bold lines and bright colors. During this time, he kept his work locked in a small drawer in his attic (hence the exhibition title).
■ 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
■ Until April 3
Photo courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
Those who like to live vicariously through other people’s travels and adventures should check out Playlist (出門在外的播放清單), which opens at Taipei’s VT Art Salon tomorrow. The exhibition will feature works that various Taiwanese artists created while abroad. While some of the artwork tries to give a sense of the adrenaline rush that comes from discovering a new land, others are more introspective and revolve around themes of identity, displacement and culture clash. Huang Pin-ling (黃品玲) creates stunning abstract images inspired by Iceland’s glaciers with cool pastel tones using watercolor and color pencils. Mia Wen-hsuan Liu’s (劉文瑄) installations comment more on the feeling and psychological effects of traveling, likening it to a sort of sleepwalking state.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號B1), tel: (02) 2516-1060. Open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 10pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 9
Photo courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
Mind Set Art Center will be celebrating its recent relocation with the opening of The Road Not Taken Ch 1 (林中路‧上篇). The joint exhibition will include the works of 11 Taiwanese artists born between the 1950s and 1980s, including Chung Shun-wen (鍾舜文) and Lee Ming-tse (李明則). The exhibition derives its name from Robert Frost’s famous 1916 poem where the narrator, stricken by indecision, ponders what his life would have been like if he had made other choices. It’s basically saying in iambic tetrameter that the grass is greener on the other side. Likewise, the artwork displayed highlight the lonely and introspective journey that artists often embark on, but also how trekking into the unknown is also a fulfilling adventure within itself. Chapter 2 of The Road Not Taken, which opens later in April, will feature the works of foreign artists.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), 7F, 180, Heping E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市和平東路一段180號7樓), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 16
Though Wang Tzu-ting (王姿婷) uses pencil as her main medium, her work shows much versatility. In the past, she has drawn haunting sketches of forlorn-looking, ghost-like people, as well as quirky, rainbow-colored interlocking water slides which appear to represent the nostalgia of an idyllic childhood. Her latest exhibition, A Pencil Does Not Read A Single Word (鉛筆不識字), which opens at Project Fulfill Art Space tomorrow, focuses more on sketches of individual objects that have emotional significance to Wang. Each object she depicts brings her back to a particular point of her life. I’m just curious to know where the noose and the giant squid comes in.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 16
Dung Ming-lung’s (董明龍) stone sculptures are inspired by the limestone mountains near his home in Hualien. While some of the sculptures are abstract in nature, others serve a more functional purpose, such as his heart-shaped and shell-shaped benches that exude a simple, zen-like quality. Dung’s work can be seen at Taipei’s A Gallery, in an exhibition entitled, Internalized Model - Dung Ming-lung Solo Exhibition of Sculptures (我形 — 董明龍雕塑個展).
■ A Gallery (當代一畫廊), 22, Alley 36, Lane 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷36弄22號), tel: (02) 2702-3327. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until April 23
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