The first edition of Taipei Dangdai (台北當代) debuts today at the Nangang Exhibition Hall. Organized by former team of Art HK, the predecessor of Art Basel in Hong Kong, the fair hopes to build on Taipei’s well-established art scene and establish itself as an important occasion for the international art market within the Asian region. Ninety gallery exhibitors will participate, including many big name dealers, including Hauser & Wirth, Lisson Gallery, Kukje Gallery, Arario Gallery and Gagosian. “I eagerly anticipate ... the fair will be a game-changer for Taiwan,” says Taipei-based collector Leslie Sun (孫怡). A strong presentation of Taiwanese dealers will be present as well, including Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊) and Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), among others. Lin & Lin Gallery will be showing the works of prominent Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁) and Beijing-based Liu Wei (劉煒). Mind Set Art Center will feature the paintings of Rao Fu (傅饒) and Tang Jo-hung (黨若洪), two artists who engage in a dialogue between the traditional and contemporary. The fair has also curated a special section of works under the price of US$8,000, including works by rising young stars as well as photographs and prints by more established names.
■ Nangang Exhibition Hall (南港展覽館), 1, Jingmao 2nd Rd, Taipei City (台北市金茂二路1號), tel: (02) 7729-9256. Open Friday from 12pm to 8pm, Saturday from 12pm to 7pm and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm. Admission: NT$400
■ Until Sunday
Photo Courtesy of 3812 Gallery
Ink Now Art Expo (水墨現場) is a new art fair that will grace the Expo Dome of Taipei Expo Park this weekend with a promising presentation of ink-based art. Founded by Hong Kong entrepreneur Calvin Hui (許劍龍), the show will present 30 galleries active in Asia, including Hanart TZ Gallery (漢雅軒), 3812 Gallery and YEWN (淵) from Hong Kong, SHIBUNKAKU from Kyoto, Amy Li Gallery (艾米李畫廊) from Beijing and Xu Gallery (言午畫廊) from Shanghai, Da Xiang Art Space (大象藝術空間館) and Chini Gallery (采泥畫廊) from Taiwan, among others. SHIBUNKAKU will be showing works by Japanese calligrapher Yuichi Inoue and video artist Yang Yong-liang (楊泳梁). Hanart TZ Gallery will present a solo exhibition of the late literati painter Yeh Shih-chiang (葉世強). Hui says the fair is also committed to facilitating the growth of Ink Art from a more holistic point of view by collaborating closely with art specialists, academics, curators and gallerists. In conjunction with the fair, Ink Now has also launch its online platform, an online gallery and journal dedicated to the promotion of ink art.
■ Taipei Expo Park Expo Dome (台北花博公園爭艷館), 1, Yumen St, Taipei (台北市玉門街1號), tel: (02) 2596-3812. Open Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 7pm and Monday from 11am to 6pm. Admission: NT$350
■ Until Monday
Photo Courtesy of Caves Art Center
Caves Art Center is currently showing The Effulgent Tiller of Hope (絢櫱之冀), a solo show by Taiwanese painter Lin Li-ling (林麗玲). In the 1980s, Lin studied under the prominent artist and writer Chiang Hsun (蔣勳) at Tunghai University, before moving abroad to France to further her studies. Lin is known for her explorations of the figurative and floral through imaginative portraits and still life compositions. Her oil paintings and drawings express her reflections on the human condition, particularly ideas of sexuality, love and desire. The exhibition features a selection of recent works that offer insights into her recent creative developments. “In life, there is the negative and the positive. What I strive to do in art is to transform the negative, not into the positive, but into something else in art,” Lin says.
■ 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 daily from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Feb 17
Photo Courtesy of Galerie Nichido Taipei
Janaina Tschape is a New York based German artist debuting her first solo exhibition in Taiwan at Galerie Nichido Taipei. Mapping the Undertow Under a Pale Blue Sky (蒼藍天空下 描繪暗湧) presents a series of new paintings that feature “earthly landscapes, ethereal female silhouettes as well as aqueous tones and biological forms,” writes the gallery in a press release. Tschape’s paintings are richly layered with meticulous application of watercolor, casein, colored pencil and pastel. Over the past 20 years, she has used a range of mediums to approach landscape, including painting, drawing, photography video and sculpture. “Referencing myth, morphology and the mysteries of aquatic states, she has developed a distinctive language of abstraction in which organic forms are imbued with a remarkable luminosity.”
■ Galerie Nichido Taipei (台北日動畫廊), 3F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號3樓), tel: (02) 2579-8795. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until March 9
Photo Courtesy of Studio Ghibli
Since the 1980s, legendary Tokyo-based animation film studio Studio Ghibli has been creating unforgettable films that have touched the hearts of children across the globe. The studio was co-founded by the master animator and manga artists Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takata and Toshio Suzuki. Over the last four decades, Studio Ghibli has released an incredible catalog of works, including Castles in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke. The studio’s 2001 production, Spirited Away, tells the tale of a young girl who enters a fantastic world of Shinto-Buddhist folklore. To date, the film remains the second highest grossing animation film made in Japan, and was awarded Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards. Over 1,400 original illustrations from Studio Ghibli are presently on view at Studio Ghibli Layout Designs (吉卜力動畫手稿展), offering a view behind the scenes of their most incredible films. The show shares their design process of character building, background treatment, positioning and animation, and how the stories are brought to life with expressive details and vitality.
■ Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂), 21, Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21號), tel: (02) 7721-6955. Open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 6pm. Admission: NT$320
■ Until April 18
Photo Courtesy of Sean Kelly
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
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
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Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s