Yang Meng-lun (楊孟倫) and Yeh Chan-yun (葉展昀) will debut their digital photography with limited edition prints at their show, About Time (故事). The two young artists travelled extensively to cities in Vietnam, China, England, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan over the past few years. Visitors should expect strong visuals in the duo’s powerful portraits of locals as well as everyday details from their journeys. Proceeds of the exhibition will benefit Junyi Academy (均一教育平台), which provides free virtual supplemntal education for Taiwanese students.
■ Caves Art Center (敦煌藝術中心), 91, Fujin St, Taipei City (台北市富錦街91號), tel: (02) 2718-2091. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm, Sundays from 1pm to 7pm, Mondays by appointment.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 13
Photo courtesy of Laddie John Dill Studio, White Stone Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery
Paris-based Leo Wang (王建文) will present a new series of abstract oil paintings at Liang Gallery in a solo exhibition titled The Stargazers (觀星者). Wang uses various techniques and fine brushstrokes to create fragments from the intersection of reality and non-reality. His compositions consist of hazy, colorful blocks that create reflections and distortions, posing both literal and philosophical questions on perspective and existence.
■ 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.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Blurring the boundaries of art and fashion, Chen Hsiao-hsi (陳曉熙) will present quirky mixed media installations at her solo show Nature (天生性格) at Nunu Fine Art. One example is an untitled sculptural piece resembling a shoe with feathers that as a whole looks like a plant, hinting at design imitating life.
■ 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 Sunday. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Pong Ding
American artist Laddie John Dill’s intricate installations will be shown at his exhibition, Contained Radience (載光體), at White Stone Gallery. A prominent member of the Light and Space movement that originated in California, Dill employs materials such as sand, glass and light to create a microcosm of landscape art within the gallery’s interior space. Continuing the tradition of using lights in installations by masters like Dan Flavin and Christian Herdeg, Dill has created an impressive body of work that explores the effects of lights on human perception.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Caves Art Center
Along with five other members of the artist alliance, Ouroboros Organic Organisms of O (?機體), Chen Yi-yun (陳逸云) will participate in the group show Atypical Human (非典人類) at Taipei’s Yiri Arts. The exhibit is a well-curated project that explores the past, present and future of human beings. Chen’s conceptual works take form in digital printouts of fictional designs for the elderly — from a music hall to a bar, garden, shop, playground and bedroom. These compositions seem practical, but are actually sarcastic.
■ Yiri Arts (伊日藝術), 4-1, 5, Ln 768, Bade Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市八德路四段768巷5號4樓之1), tel: (02) 2786-3866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm.
■ Opens today. Until Sept. 3
Photo courtesy of Caves Art Center
Belgian architect and artist Stijn Ank’s exhibition Unvoid (在空之間) will showcase his site-specific abstract fresco paintings and 3D works. Using plaster, concrete and other materials, Ank also makes abstract, pillar-like structures on site.
■ 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) 2552-3721. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm.
■ Opens today. Until Sept. 10
Photo courtesy of Shin Leh Yuan Art Space
With her solo exhibition The Idler’s Hasty Gaze (閒暇者的忙碌凝視), Eszter Chen (陳純虹) will display her colorful fauvist paintings, mostly involving female portraiture and still life. Chen’s strong attraction to Henri Matisse may remind the viewer of British artist David Hockney’s light palettes, landing somewhere in the cross-section of 20th century and contemporary art.
■ Pon Ding (朋丁), 6, Ln 53, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山北路一段53巷6號), tel: (02) 2537 7281. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 20
Li Ei-chen’s (李翊誠) two-dimensional mixed media work can be seen at the show, Not Pleasant Not Contemporary (不討喜不當代). Combining photos he took documenting the 2014 gas explosion in his native Kaohsiung with silkscreen prints, Li’s works are indeed not pleasant. Almost in a tone of dark humor, he explores the different states of mind he has toward his hometown. The resulting colorful, semi-abstract collages serve as a compass that points his way back home.
■ Shin Leh Yuan Art Space (新樂園藝術空間), 15-2, Ln 11, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市中山北路二段11巷15-2號), tel: (02) 2561-1548. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located