The Asia University Museum of Modern Art (亞洲大學現代美術館) is currently holding a retrospective exhibition, Infinities of Zao Wou-ki (無極之美), of postwar master painter Zao Wou-ki (趙無極). Zao is a Beijing-born artist who migrated to France in the 1940s where he developed a distinct style of painting that combined Western modernist techniques with Chinese landscape painting. His works were soon well received within the Parisian art scene and were praised by contemporaries such as Miro and Picasso. Aside from his aesthetic achievements, Zao is also known for his consistently high auction prices, one of which reached a record US$19.5 million last year. Showing an impressive 67 paintings by Zao, the exhibition chronicles his career developments over the years and reveals the experiments and influences that inspired his evolving painting style. While Zao worked predominantly in oil paints, he also created some ink paintings including Paravent, a folding screen that features abstract calligraphic markings. The show also includes a never before seen large painting, Sans Titre ; La Danse, in which the viewer may catch a glimpse of the artist’s sprouting ideas of Chinese painting elements at an early stage in his career.
■ Asia University Museum of Modern Art (亞洲大學現代美術館), 500, Liufong Road, Taichung City (台中市柳豐路500號), tel: (04) 2332 3456. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5pm
■ Through March 4
Photo Courtesy the artist
Tick, a solo exhibition by Wu Zong-long (吳宗龍), is based on the everyday life of a fictional character Geh-Ah (傑仔) who represents the everyday man and small town culture. Through a series of installations in one single, dim-lit room, the show creates an aesthetic exploration of Geh-Ah’s daily habitat. According to the artist, Geh-Ah is inspired by a culmination of daily sensibilities, including the feeling of suppression and boredom that builds from a mundane and repetitive lifestyle. “We do not move by ourselves, but are instead pushed forward by time,” writes Wu. Through a half rolled-up overhead door, viewers enter the exhibition space and encounter a number of objects scattered on the floor — a weed patch ridden with garbage, a wet towel and a toppled over pile of garbage — to create a neglected atmosphere thickened with the strong odor of trash and resonating acoustics of the empty room. Wu is a video and installation artist based in Kaohsiung.
■ Fotoaura Institute of Photography (海馬迴光畫館), 2F, 83 Chenggong Rd, Tainan City (台南市成功路83號2樓), tel: (06) 222-3495. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm.
Photo Courtesy of Made in Heart
■ Through Feb 11
Catch the last week of Taiwanese photographer and elementary school teacher Chen Ching-pao’s (陳敬寶) solo exhibition, Circumgyration Project (迴返計畫), which features a series of staged photographs based on the recollections of his students and their parents about their memories of their attendance at school. Over the years, Chen has also carried out the project in Japan, Korea and China, documenting the education system of the Asia region through a collaborative effort between the photographer and his subjects. Chen carefully navigates the power relationship between directing the staged scenes and keeping faithful to the perspective of the students and parents. He is not interested in recreating the past with theatrical dynamics, but instead allows a participatory process of communicating, exchanging and game playing to stimulate ideas during each photo shoot. In the exhibition catalogue, Chen references a quote from Marguerite Duras’ novel The Lover: “Who would have thought of such a thing? The photograph could only have been taken if someone could have known in advance how important it was to be in my l life, that event, that crossing of the river.”
Photo Courtesy of Wildflower Bookstore
■ Champ d’image (影像場域) 2F, Bellavita, Song Ren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松仁路BELLAVITA二樓), tel: (02) 2722 2895. Open Daily from 10:30am to 10pm
■ Through Jan. 31
Photo courtesy of Dennis Bouchard and Zao Wou-Ki/ProLitteris, Zurich
Artist Chen Yin-jane’s (陳穎蓁) A Room with a Sea Wave Carpet features a series of objects and drawings that she uses to create a fictional reality characterized by bubbly DIY aesthetics, a dash of innocence and fantastical creatures. Chen is interested in exploring beyond the surface of form and to experiment with alternative realities, language and symbols. Ocean in my room is a oil pastel sketch that literally depicts blue ocean waves flowing through an elongated living room decorated with landscape murals and floral wallpaper. Rainbow Monster is a small stuffed puppy with multiple eyes and plastic fur in rainbow colors. The show is also accompanied by a workshop that invites participants to create chicken dolls.
■ Made in Heart (新藝製作所) 30, Lane 53, Haian Rd, Tainan (台南市海安路三段53巷30號). Open Fridays to Sundays from 5pm to 7pm. Other times by appointment.
■ Through Feb. 11
Berlin-based Josephin Ritschel creates mesmerizing prints, cartoons and illustrations with a distinctly surreal style and often bizarre narratives. Her solo exhibition, Surrounding Coziness, is a selection of 30 works from her previous publications, Endless Negative Space and Surrounding Coziness, as well as illustrations from earlier stages of her career. Many of the works on view express her recurring interest in exploring architectural fantasies in different landscapes. In one drawing, a glass building shaped in the form of a lighting rod is placed against a steep cliff; in another, a group of large crabs dwell in a leisurely interior with lounge chairs surrounding an anamorphic pool. Ritschel often draws with subtle spectrums of gray and layered pencil strokes that glisten with reflection. Her work has been featured in many publications including Wrap Magazine, The New York Times and Nobrow.
■ Wildflower Bookstore (荒花書店), 1F, 7, Ln 69, Chengde Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市承德路一段 69 巷 7 號). Open Fridays to Mondays from 2pm to 10pm
■ Through Feb. 25
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