Justine Tjallinks’ captivating photos are currently on view at Highlights: New Dutch Photography Talent 2012-2017 (強勢崛起─荷蘭攝影明日之星). Her portrait Jeweled Intent is an excellent example of how contemporary photographers are blurring the boundaries between digital imagery and painting. Tjallinks seems to “paint” with her lens, as if she is bringing back to life portraits from the Renaissance — most notably Rembrandt masterpieces.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Sec 3, Xinsheng N Rd, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1), tel: (02) 2597-2525. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11:30am to 7pm, and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm
■ Until Sept. 23
Photo courtesy of the artist and New Taipei City Arts Center
Chinese artist Huang Jing (黃菁) is showing his oil paintings at Dongli Gallery’s new space in Taipei as part of a group show. Huang depicts the scenery of China’s Guilin Province by adding traditional ink painting techniques to his oil surfaces, creating a unique ambiance that is poetic, serene and pensive.
■ Dongli Gallery (東籬畫廊);No. 15, Ln 71, Sec 1 Hangzhou S Rd, Taipei City;(台北市杭州南路一段71巷15號), tel: (02) 2391-6889. Open daily from 11 am to 7pm
■ Until Sept. 30
Photo courtesy of Dongli Gallery
Zheng Chong-xiao (鄭崇孝) will debut his large oil paintings made of several canvas as part of his sizable solo exhibition Pouting Boy: Reproduction Plan (嘟嘴男孩︰重製計劃) at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM). His works feature miniature self portraits in classical compositions of Chinese ink masterpieces along with conceptual collages of Japanese and Western manga and cartoon characters. One of his largest works features fictional icebergs in classical composition, obviously alluding to climate change.
Unlike his previous exhibition at a commercial gallery, Lin Tzu-huan (林子桓) has transformed TFAM into a psychedelic ruin-like pseudo-construction site/maze for his solo show The Yellow Snake Is Waiting (銜尾蛇). With colorful lighting, the show is comprised of several mysterious spatial installations, where visitors have to climb through broken walls and shattered pieces to navigate the exhibit.
Broken Spectre (破身影) is a group show of video art that features If the (Island’s) Body Is a (Marginalized) Rice Dumpling Par Excellence, a specially commissioned piece by Yu Cheng-ta (余政達) for which viewer discretion is advised. Yu’s installations contain an element of theater, with this one featuring two female characters delivering dramatic monologues and engaging in whimsical conversations regarding sadomasochism. While there’s no full nudity, the piece is an enticing act of seduction and submission.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Taipei Fine Arts Museum
■ 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
■ All exhibitions until Sept. 17
Chen Yan-ru (陳衍儒) is showing his acrylic paintings at the group show The Reflection of Floating Dream (浮夢˙凝映). Chen creates digital painting-like textures with intricate handmade templates that result in an illusion of digitally-rendered lacquerware. Chen’s paintings questions the post-Internet age of digitization while recycling compositions from old Chinese masters and Impressionists like Claude Monet. His approach is refreshing and colorful.
Photo courtesy of Show Gallery
■ New Taipei City Arts Center (新北市藝文中心), 62 Jhuangjing Rd, New Taipei City (新北市板橋區莊敬路62號), tel: (02) 2253-4417.
Open daily from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Sept. 24
Photo courtesy of VT Art Salon
Yeh Jen-kun (葉仁焜) is showing his mixed-media ink paintings on canvas and silk at the group show Ink × Multiplicities II (水墨×複數II). Yeh pushes the traditional definition of painting by fusing gelled pigments, ink, silver foil and other media, renewing contemporary possibilities for traditional materials.
■ Show Gallery (小畫廊), 166, Shizhong 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市市中一路166號).Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm. Tel: (07) 215-0798
■ Until Sunday
Lin Hsi-chun (林?俊) is showing his abstract acrylic paintings at his exhibition The Poetic of Space Through (詩性空間的穿越) at Kaohsiung’s Sincewell Gallery. Lin’s non-linear perspective approach to abstract painting reminds us of Richard Diebenkorn’s style, though Lin employs more lines and a wider palette range that forms a complex mash up of different spatial dimensions.
■ Sincewell Gallery (新思惟人文空間), 2F, 37 Mingjhe Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市明哲路37號2樓). Open daily from noon to 10pm. Tel: (07) 345-2699
■ Until Sept. 17
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