Chu Teh-i (曲德義) is showing his latest abstract paintings at the solo show A Space between Dimensions (居間的維度). Chu’s unique style of combining two or multiple canvases to group single-colored planes with his more fluid abstract tableaus in saturated color blotches is an aggregation of reason and sensibility. The emulsifier that blends the two seemingly unmixable opposites creates aesthetic balance.
■ Double Square Gallery (雙方藝廊), 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
■ Until Oct. 29
Photo courtesy of Double Square Gallery
Chen Fei-hao’s (陳飛豪) solo exhibit, Ineffective Myth (失效的神話), features video installations as well as architectural sketches printed on acrylic panels. Chen’s work cleverly examines Taiwan’s post-World War II history, and while he addresses actual history, he also explores the possibility of histories that never were.
■ Dynasty Gallery Space B (朝代畫廊B館), 43, Leli Rd, Taipei City (台北市樂利路43號), tel: (02) 2377-0838. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 28
Photo courtesy of Dynasty Gallery
Teng Pu-chun’s (鄧卜君) solo show, Rock the Dream, Spirit of Ink (墨幻搖滾), synthesizes elements of traditional Chinese landscape painting. Twisted Spring Water and Greenstonesfish for the Green Clouds (2016), for example, draws inspiration from ancient cosmological theories and flourishes them with contemporary ideas on aesthetics.
■ Chini Gallery (采泥藝術), 48, Lane 128, Jingye 1st Rd, Taipei City (台北市敬業一路128巷48號), tel: (02) 7729-5809. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 7pm
■ Opening tomorrow. Until Oct. 19
Photo courtesy of Chini Gallery
In Beyond Daily (未知的日常), Cheng Nung-hsuan’s (鄭農軒) uses portraiture to examine social interaction and identity. The faces of his subjects are either absent or only partially visible. Cheng seems to suggest that the viewer projects their own visage onto the canvas, effectively replacing an absence with a presence.
■ Jing Lu Gallery (靜慮藝術) 124 Jinjiang St, Taipei City (台北市晉江街124號), tel: (02) 2369-2608. Open Tuesday to Saturdays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 21
Photo courtesy of Licence Art Gallery
Ku Chi-chun’s (辜琪鈞) video installation, which shows her painted flowers in a kaleidoscope video that changes with the viewer’s movement, will appear as part of The 16th Taichung Tsaimo Festival (第十六屆台中彩墨藝術節).
■ Taichung City Tun District Art Center (台中市屯區藝文中心), 201 Daxing Rd, Taichung City (台中市大興路201號), tel: (04) 2392-1122. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5:30pm
■ Until Oct. 22
Photo courtesy of Jing Lu Gallery
Chang Chih-cheng (張志成) is showing his new oil paintings at Licence Art Gallery in Tainan. “Painting is a form of self-indulgence,” Chang has said. For him, balance is an art; with positive, there’s negative. In this series of works, brightness and darkness serve as a metaphor for seeking harmony.
■ Licence Art Gallery (東門美術館), 203-1, Fuqian Rd Sec 1, Tainan City (台南市府前路一段203號1樓), tel:(06)213-1897. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until Oct. 22
Ke Wei-kuo (柯偉國) is showing ink-on-paper paintings at the group show Mandala of Ink Art (水墨曼陀羅). Ke describes one work, Borrowed World (2017), as a peaceful respite in an otherwise frenetic urban environment.
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA, 高雄市立美術館), 80 Meishuguan Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 555-0331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm.
■ Until Oct. 29
British artist Gareth Bunting is showing his color ink-on-paper works at the group show Time Traveler’s Memory (白日夢遊記—時空旅人的回憶). Nature Bound, for example, is an ink on silk triptych with each frame representing life and death.
■ Pier-2 Contemporary Art (駁二當代館), 1 Dayong Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大勇路1號), tel: (07) 521-4899. Open Mondays to Thursdays from 10am to 6pm, Fridays to Sundays and national holidays from 10am to 8pm.
■ Until Oct. 29
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and