Summer in Taiwan is here to stay and Taipei galleries seem to be celebrating the warmer weather by featuring artwork that is bright and cheery with themes such as love, travel and women in swimwear. Dear Dear (親親我的愛) is a joint exhibition at Liang Gallery which showcases the works of Taiwanese artists from different generations that revolves around the themes of “love” and “beauty” — two terms which are not vague or subjective at all. Included in the lineup is the late Taichung-born, Japan-trained sculptor Chen Hsia-yu (陳夏雨), whose female nudes capture the sublimity of a simple smile or gaze. Also on display are Lo Chiao-ling’s (羅喬綾) adorable paintings of chubby, cherubic cartoon characters with big heads. Her seemingly innocent creatures walk the line between escaping and facing reality. In addition, look out for Tsai Chieh-hsin’s (蔡潔莘) globular sculptures which are dyed in rainbow colors.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號), tel: (02) 2797-1100. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until May 29
Photo courtesy of Nunu Fine Art
Spanish artist Blanca Amoros is fascinated by the interlocking concepts of time and memory. The inspiration for her latest exhibition, Husks of Endurance (奔向灰色地), was inspired by vintage photographs from family albums and erotic magazines featuring pin-up girls from the 1960s and 70s which she collected from flea markets in Europe. Amoros paints over these images with minimal detail, focusing instead on the contours of the bodies and the attitudes that these women are trying to convey. All her figures are faceless, suggesting that these women could be anyone. The once precious family photos of beach outings and private magazine collections of nude women sauntering around the house no longer belongs to individuals. Rather, they become collective memory.
■ 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 May 29
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
Apparently the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton does not only make exorbitantly priced purses anymore. They also publish Travel Book, a series of mini travel guides for those who have the means to jet set to cities like Istanbul or Sao Paulo in first class (while clutching your Louis Vuitton handbag and donning your Louis Vuitton pumps, of course). Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong (劉小東) was commissioned to produce paintings of South Africa for a recent issue on the African country. His colorful paintings of people dressed in swimwear and traditional garb capture the vibrant, everyday life in various multiethnic communities, though in a somewhat idealized way. Liu also paints wildlife — elephants, rhinos, lions — using lots of cheerful colors and bold brush strokes. His paintings can be seen at Liu Xiaodong in South Africa (劉小東在南非), which opens at 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 June 5
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Los Angeles-born Taiwanese-American artist Leland Lee (李柏毅), who was diagnosed with autism when he was a toddler, always had a knack for art. His paintings, which comprise of colorful shapes stacked atop one another in a cluttered manner to form the outlines of animals, buildings and landscapes, are whimsical and endearing. Each painting is derived from Lee’s memories of his childhood and his travels around the world, from visiting cowboy ranches in the US to walking in the crowded streets of Taipei. Lee’s latest solo exhibition, Perseverance — No Limitation (毅象無邊), is held at MOCA, Taipei. Look out for animals that make repeat appearances in his paintings, including an adorable moose.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA, Taipei), 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 June 12
Photo courtesy of MOCA
German artist Peter Zimmermann once said that if he had lived a hundred years ago, he probably would have painted landscapes. But since the world we live in today is saturated by images derived from behind a computer or smartphone screen, Zimmermann paints colorful, pigmented blotches instead, which he sprays with a glossy, shiny coat of epoxy resin to really make the colors pop. His work is vaguely reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s pop art, but a more digitized version. Zimmermann’s solo exhibition, Peter Zimmermann: Oil on Canvas (彼得辛默曼:油畫), opens on Sunday at Nunu Fine Art.
■ Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術), 5, Ln 67, Jinshan S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市金山南路1段67巷5號), tel: (02) 3322-6207. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 7pm
■ Opens on Sunday. Until June 12
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
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