Born in 1936, Liao Shiou-ping (廖修平) is a distinguished Taiwanese painter and printmaker who went abroad to study and live in Japan, France and the US in the mid 20th century. He learned the art of intaglio, a form of printing, in the famous Parisian printmaking studio Atelier 17 and later settled down in the US where he established his own studio. He eventually moved back to Taiwan. Simple Noble: The Artist Careers of Liao Shiou-ping (樸素高貴:廖修平的藝術歷程) is a retrospective spanning the 1960s until the present. While adopting Western influences in technique and culture, Liao also drew inspiration from his own cultural roots and childhood memories. “Modest and focused, the artist transforms plain and simple symbols into [an] aesthetic [that is] profound and noble,” writes the gallery.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號), tel: (02) 2797-1100. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Nov. 24
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
In collaboration with Casino Luxembourg — Forum for Contemporary Art, TheCube Project Space (立方計劃空間) presents The Ouroboros (銜尾蛇), an joint exhibition that is happening simultaneously in Taipei and Luxembourg. The show is part of a year-long Taiwan-Luxembourg exchange program that began last year. The ourobors, an ancient symbol that appears in many different religions and myths, depicts a serpent swallowing its own tail. The image traditionally refers to ideas of infinity, repetition and cycles of birth and death. Psychologist Carl Jung once proposed the ouroboros as related to the archetype of the human psyche. The show identifies with the ouroboros as a central theme that connects different responses to the general question of human survival. Eleven video works by eight artists are on view, engaging with the relationship between humanity, technology and nature.
■ TheCube Project Space (立方計劃空間), 2F, Ally 1, Ln 136, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段136巷1弄13號2樓). tel: (02) 2368-9418. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 8pm
■ Until Oct. 20
Photo Courtesy of TheCube Project Space
ANiMAL—Art, Science, Nature, Society (動物藝想) is an exhibition of new media art curated by the City University of Hong Kong. The show explores the animal world through various fields, including art, science and the social sciences. Some of the featured works are inspired by masterpieces in the collection of the National Palace Museum, such as Morphosis of Castiglione’s Hundred Horses, a multimedia interpretation of Giuseppe Castiglione’s 18th century silk hand scroll, One Hundred Horses. In the new work, a digital animation of changing fur textures based on Castiglione’s paintings are projected onto a life-size horse sculpture. In addition to referencing historical works of art, the university presents artistic endeavours that integrate modern medicine technologies. CT Scans of a Cat and a Dog are computer-processed images that show cross sections of animals’ bodies based on data from X-ray measurements.
■ Songshan Feng-tian Temple (松山奉天宮), 12, Ln 221, Fude St, Taipei City (台北市福德街221巷12號), tel: (02) 2727-9765. Open Tuesdays to Sundays 9:30am to 5pm
■ Until Oct. 27
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Fine Works Donated to the National Palace Museum: A Selection of Modern Paintings and Calligraphy (受贈品展—現代書畫選萃) is the latest iteration of the National Palace Museum’s ongoing exhibitions of privately donated works. The show features seven calligraphers and painters born in the early 20th century who made remarkable contributions to the modern art of Taiwan. Huang Chun-pi (黃君璧) was an influential ink painter and educator well versed in a wide range of painting techniques. His misty landscape, Water from the Deep Green Cliff (自作蒼崖飛瀑), is a dynamic monochromatic composition with nuanced brushwork that is unrestrained yet subtly powerful.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open daily from 8:30am to 6:30pm; closes at 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays
■ Until Sept. 25
Photo Courtesy of TheCube Project Space
h0le (洞) is a five day program of film screenings, artist talks and performances that respond to issues surrounding locality, such as methods of determining a place and ways to engage with it. Independent curators Esther Lu (呂岱如) and Korean Gahee Park have assembled 12 artists to “penetrate, project, reflect, extend [and] shift what connects and crosses geographies, generations and more,” reads the curatorial press release. Presenters include Cho Ik-jung, a Korean artist who works in diverse media who looks at violence and social relationships; Choi Yun, a Korean video, installation and performance artist who speculates on the collective beliefs implied in images found in public spaces and media; and Lo Shih-tung (羅仕東), a multimedia artist and leading member of Open Contemporary Art Center (打開-當代藝術工作站).
■ Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心), 11, Ln 49, Baoan St, Taipei City (台北市保安街49巷11號), tel: (02) 2550-1231. Open Wednesdays to Saturdays 2pm to 6:30pm
■ Until Sept. 1
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
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