This week’s art listings start with an examination of Taiwanese contemporary art, with Chiu Yi-chen’s (邱奕辰) solo show Time and Space Fantasy (時空幻境). Joy and anticipation can be found in Chiu’s oil paintings, which are realistic depictions of surreal scenes and feature whimsical silhouettes of known and mystic creatures in the forms of clouds and various plants. Chiu’s work will be exhibited with River Art (大河美術) at this year’s Art Taipei art fair (台北國際藝術博覽會) at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall One (世貿一館) in October.
■ National Taiwan Arts Education Center Exhibition Hall 3 (國立臺灣藝術教育館第三展覽室), 47, Nanhai Road, Taipei City (台北市南海路47號), tel: (02) 2311-0574. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until June 25
Photo courtesy of River Art
Showing at Michael Ku Gallery, Kuo Yu-ping (郭俞平) debuts new works from her residency in Columbia with My Little Black Book (小黑書). Her works, some on paper, are the result of cultural diffusion and exchange after spending a year in South America, forming a conversation among the different cultures she has encountered. Her work Peeing Fairy references lost tales and various Aboriginal cultures, with refined lines and contrasting colors.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2), tel: (02) 2577-5601. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Sunday from 3-6pm. Until August 13
Photo courtesy of Michael Ku Gallery
In the tradition of finding young talent in realism, The Young Generation Realistic Painting Exhibition (雅逸寫實新銳展) at Julia Gallery features Chen Hung-hsin’s (陳宏忻) work Disguise II. The painting features a timid looking hedgehog standing inside a flower, hinting at human social behavior and an exploration of deeper reasoning and philosophy, which is suggested by the mysterious array of delicate light in the background.
■ Julia Gallery (雅逸藝術), 8, Lane 50, Zhongcheng Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市忠誠路二段50巷8號), tel: (02) 2832-1330. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 8pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until July 2
Photo courtesy of Julia Gallery
The Terrain of Taiwan Contemporary Art (山頭風、海口潮:台灣當代藝術的季風、黑潮) is an ambitious curatorial project that aims to shape the contemporary Taiwanese art scene. Avant-garde master Hou Chun-ming (侯俊明) uses carnal motifs to mirror the conditions of Taiwanese society. Mei Dean-e (梅丁衍), the leading conceptual artist in the local art scene, examines issues of gender equality with his 2009 work titled Sex Distinction, a photographic work of two pairs of women and men’s shoes. Yang Mao-lin (楊茂林), a prominent figure from the artist group Hantoo Art Group (悍圖社), proposes an ironic parallel in his slogan series, questioning the future among works by Lee Jiun-shyan (李俊賢), Chiu Kuo-chun (邱國峻), Lin Shu-kai (林書楷) and Zhang Xu-zhan (張徐展).
■ Double Square Gallery (双方藝廊), 28 Lane 770, Beian Road, Taipei City (台北市北安路770巷28號), tel: (02) 8501-2138. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 6:30pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until July 16
Photo courtesy of the artist
From Ancient Origins to Novel Pigments (仿古墨新) is a show not to be missed if you like traditional ink paintings. Chou Hsi-ting (周錫珽) combines classic styles with his unique flourishes on these massive paintings, the largest is over 10 meters long. Chou has created spectacular scenery in an urban interior setting, challenging the viewer’s perspective.
■ Exhibition Hall Two, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂二展廳), 21 Chung-Shan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21號), tel: (02) 2343-1100. Open daily from 9am to 6pm
■ Until June 13
Photo courtesy of Yiri Arts
Chen Wen-chi’s (陳文祺) solo Authenticity Time Status Episode 1 (偽歷史 首部曲) examines love, sex and death, a continuation of his 2014 show Authenticity Temporal Memory. Chen is fascinated by the different time stages of objects and images.
■ Galerie Grand Siecle (新苑藝術), 17, Alley 51, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷51弄17號), tel: (02) 2578-5630. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Opening reception today from 6pm. Until July 7
Invoking the visual linguistics of Fernand Leger and Roy Lichtenstein, illustrator Laba’s (喇叭吮) positive and vivid palette is on display at Laba Solo Exhibition (喇叭吮個展) in Taichung City’s Yiri Arts. Laba’s risographs smartly synthesizes elements from popular culture and art history, particularly 90s female pop singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore, with each work linked to a fragment of a song. For example, No Reason, pictured right, came from Hebe Tien’s (田馥甄) song Love Yourself, hence the craving for desserts is fully displayed in the subject matter and composition.
■ Yiri Arts Taichung (伊日藝術台中空間), 2 Jingcheng 5th St, Taichung City (台中市精誠五街2號), tel: (04) 2327-4361. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until July 9
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
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
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