IT Park Gallery has been doing a good job at showing the intersections between art and science lately, and in its most recent exhibition, Chiu Chao-tsai (邱昭財) uses both a telescope and a microscope to create some extraterrestrial-like installations. Light‧Scape (光 ‧ 景) piques the viewers’ natural curiosity toward the unknown — both in terms of what’s out there in the vast universe and the microorganisms that lurk beneath the surface. His blurry and static-filled videos both amuse and frighten, but most of all, they make us feel somewhat helpless, as if we were solely at the whim of the universe.
■ 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 29
Photo courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
It’s ironic that Peng Xiancheng’s (彭先誠) latest solo exhibition is called Best Time of Year Falls in March (四時最好是三月) since it opened in April, but the name comes from a verse in a Tang Dynasty poem about the youthfulness of spring while lamenting the idea of growing old. The Chengdu-born Chinese artist is known for his mogu (boneless) technique, a style of painting that renders forms in ink and color washes rather than outlines. His latest series of paintings explores in particular the subtleties during seasonal changes, which allude to different emotions and how quickly and drastically they can change within in a short period of time.
■ 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 30
Photo courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
On display at Eslite Gallery are Tsong Pu’s (莊普) abstract paintings made with tiny, 1 x 1 cm squares that resemble Chinese seals or stamps. Against the Quotidian Tug (晴日換雨‧緩慢焦點) examines the idea of different perceptions, something which Tsong does well — his paintings are abstract but realistic (especially the landscapes in pixelated squares), geometric but asymmetrical. The exhibition also includes five new 3D installations that complement his paintings. Tsong’s work is highly conceptual in general and viewers can expect to use their brains a fair bit when visiting the gallery.
■ 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
■ Until May 7
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Art galleries can’t seem to get enough of the Gutai Group — Lin & Lin Gallery featured their works several times last year and this year, Aki Gallery will be hosting Gutai — Our Spirit is Free. The group, which was founded in Ashiya, Japan in 1954, has been influential in the development of modern Japanese art, and is especially known for bringing art out of museums and galleries and into the public sphere. But those who aren’t into minimalism may be a bit disappointed — a few of the pieces will have some viewers thinking that they can paint it too. For instance, Jiro Yoshihara’s Circle is just a white circle set against a black background.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 14
Photo courtesy of TFAM
Chi New-york (紀紐約) goes by his real name Chi Kai-yuan (紀凱淵) in his latest solo exhibition at Taipei Fine Arts Museum. This is a first for the Kaohsiung-born artist, who is known by his nom de plume in artistic circles. Chi Kai-yuan 2017 Solo Exhibition (2017紀凱淵個展) revolves around the ideas of names, labels and the importance we attach to them. All of this is explored in relation to the artist’s struggle to keep his personal and professional lives apart. Throughout his video installations, it’s not clear who the “other” is — sometimes it’s Kai-yuan and sometimes it’s New-york. What is clear though, is the absurdity of names and social constructs.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until June 4
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would