The Eternal Abstract (無盡的抽象) celebrates more than 50 years of paintings by Henan-born, Taiwan and US-raised Fong Chung-ray (馮鍾睿), who dabbled in abstract art long before it was cool to do so in Taiwan. Fong, now 83, started with abstract brush painting in the 1950s before combining Chinese brush painting and Western abstract art in the 1960s. During this time, he also made his own paint brushes with palm leaves. By the 1980s, Fong had switched to collage, overlapping Chinese characters onto them — a technique that continues to use. Making used of subdued, earthy hues, Fong’s paintings are both fluid and discordant, appearing from afar as pop culture posters.
■ Asia Art Center, 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市建國南路二段177號), tel: (02) 2754-1366. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm
■ Until Feb. 26
Photo courtesy of Asia Art Center
Monologue in Outer Space (真空獨白) is a joint exhibition by artistic troupe Rabbit At The Right Side and the interns at Treasure Hill Artist Village. The installation explores universal themes of love and betrayal by telling the story of a love triangle involving one man and two women. They each take turns telling a “monologue,” a strategy that the artists have employed to give equal representation to each character’s perspective without favoring or condemning one perspective over the other.
■ Treasure Hill Artist Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村), 2, Ally 14, Ln 230, Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路三段230巷14弄2號), tel: (02) 2364-5313. Open Tuesday to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Feb. 28
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Center
Animation has come a long way. Thirty-five years ago, the Arts et Technologies de l’Image (ATI) was established to cater to graduate students at Paris 8 University interested in learning how to combine art with computer technology — a novel concept at the time. Imaging Paris — Animation Exhibition by ATI Paris 8 University (影見巴黎-巴黎第八大學動畫影展) is a series of short animated films on display at MOCA, Taipei that were created by the school’s graduates, which revolve around the theme of life in the French capital. The content ranges from realistic and somber to existential and contemplative — mostly conveyed through cute cartoons. Some films contain violence and nudity so viewers under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
■ 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
■ March 5
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Center
Splendid Resonance: Ancient Chinese Jade Culture (玉意深遠 — 中原古代玉器文化展) showcases 20 jade artifacts excavated from China’s Henan Province and dating from the late Neolithic period to the Han Dynasty. The exhibition reveals that jade was associated with social status, and was used in rituals to connect with deities and buried with the deceased to help them achieve immortality. Jade continues to be seen as an auspicious symbol.
■ 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 March 12
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Center
Kiriko Iida’s paintings of cherubic, celestial children and adolescents can be perceived as innocent or filled with pedophilic undertones. The Adam and Eve motif that the Japanese artist employs, while seemingly trite, is beautifully rendered and achieves the goal of showing the emotional and physical fragility of human beings. Though tinges of evil are apparent, it is achieved subtlety through the color black, particularly the black cloaks that some of her characters wear (the others are naked). After Image of the Light (光的殘像) is currently on view Soka Art Center.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓), tel: (02) 2570-0390. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until March 12
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Center
Photo courtesy of MOCA
Photo courtesy of MOCA, TAIPEI
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your