Ciron Seneres is a Filipino artist who is inspired by Manila’s slums. Focusing on cityscapes that are often neglected or regarded as messy or dirty, he creates photorealistic paintings with tight compositions and a monochromatic palette. Although he draws from the chaos of urban environments, there is a sense of calmness to his paintings, says Taipei gallery Nunu Fine Art, where his solo exhibition Unintentional Forming Objects (UFO, 無意識形成物) is currently being held. The gallery describes his interpretation of Manila as a contemplation of the rapid urbanization that has not only happened in the Philippines but across different Asian cities. These cities share the same problems of wealth inequality, rapid population growth — all with a cyberpunk aesthetic.
■ Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術), 5, Ln 67, Jinshan S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市金山南路一段67巷5號), tel: (02) 3322-6207. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 7pm
■ Until Sept. 8
Photo courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
Organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館), The Variations of Formations (玩形變奏曲) is a group exhibition about form. Form, as a fundamental concept of art, can be discussed through various mediums, styles, patterns and textures, says the museum. It can give shape to an idea and order to an artistic expression. The show presents different approaches to form as demonstrated by selected works from the museum’s permanent collection. There is a sense of artistic playfulness in the show, as well as an appreciation for the diverse pursuits of beauty and aesthetics. Exhibition highlights include works from the late Lee Hsi-chi (李錫奇), a member of Ton Fan Art Group (東方畫會) who was known for his abstract compositions and rhythmic contours; works by Lee Yu-chen (李育貞), a young painter who deconstructs and reassembles personal memories; and contemporary interpretations of landscape (山水, shanshui or “mountain water”) paintings by Taiwanese artist Yuan Jai (袁旃).
■ 1F Gallery, Ministry of Culture, Xinzhuang Joint Office Tower, Executive Yuan (行政院新莊聯合辦公大樓南棟1樓文化部藝廊), South Building, 439 Jhongping Rd, Sinjhuang District, New Taipei City (新北市新莊區中平路439號南棟), tel: (02) 8512-6000. Opens daily from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Sept. 22
Photo Courtesy of Whitestone Gallery
Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (台北當代藝術館) presents Why Did You Come to Taiwan? (台灣!我來了), an exhibition that describes itself as an experimental site for discussion on issues surrounding decolonization. Since the 16th Century, Taiwan has had its fair share of foreign occupiers who have introduced various cultural influences. The title is from a quote by Salvador Diaz, a historical figure from the 17th century who served for the Dutch as a translator. According to curator Cheng Shao-hung (程少鴻), Diaz’s simple question serves as a starting point for the show to explore identities, ethnicities and relationships that are involved in Taiwan’s history of colonialism. Spanish-Welsh artist Rafael Perez Evans creates installations that raise questions about knowledge systems, ethnographies and ideas related to progress. His VR project, The Devil’s Bird, Ornithomancy, immerses the viewer in a narrative set in the 17th century that involves conflicts between the Spanish missionaries and Taiwanese Aborigines. Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan is a Fiipino artist whose work draws from the connection between natural history and human civilization.
■ 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) 2559-6615. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Sept. 29
Allure: Portrait (汝色: 肖像展) is a three-person exhibition of portrait paintings inspired by art history. Drawing from classic art movements such as the Renaissance and the Pre-Raphaelites, artists create their own interpretations with unique sensibilities and ideas of beauty. Japanese artist Yu Kawashima creates monochromatic works featuring emotionally distant human figures. Fabio Modica is a painter from Italy who is interested in the idea of human topography. His work depicts faces and bodies, often in an abstract manner. For Modica, painting is a process of expanding the self awareness. Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri creates portraits that explore notions of femininity. He is best known for large-scale photographs of young women standing against rich, scenic landscapes.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
■ Until Aug. 18
The late painter Wang Pan-Youn (王攀元) was a pivotal figure in Taiwanese modern art history. Wang moved to Taiwan from China in 1949 and began to garner attention after he co-founded the Lanyang Painting Association in 1961. A retrospective of his works, The Realm of Solitude (寂盡之境), is now on view at Tina Keng Gallery, which chronicles Wang’s life from his early struggles to his later years of contentment. His works are marked by a distinct feeling of melancholy and solitude, says the gallery, which suggests his tumultuous life of displacement and personal loss. His paintings often portrayed minimal compositions of solitary animals, figures, boats and houses. “This poignant aesthetics of solitude reflects not only the artist’s personal experience, but a fragment of collective memory.”
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號B1), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Aug. 18
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