Tsong Pu (莊普) is known for creating meticulous geometric paintings. His signature method of composition is to organize arrangements of color fields using one-centimeter squared grids. Although abstract and minimal, the works reference histories, sentiments and perspectives that relate to relationships between man, nature and the world. Tsong’s solo exhibition, Illusions of the Universe (幻覺的宇宙), features new paintings on canvas, watercolor drawings and installations created in the last two years. The title of the show refers to the artist’s interest in studying physical phenomena, such as analyses of light, reflection and material.
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5樓), tel: (02) 8789-3388. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Tomorrow; until Nov. 17
Photo Courtesy of Bluerider Art
Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術) presents Appearances under Erasure (擦抹情境), a solo exhibition by Juin Shieh (謝鴻均). Shieh’s drawings and paintings are intimately connected with her personal life experiences, intellectual enquiries and explorations about the social structure of contemporary society. In her studio, the artist maintains a meditative process of manipulating surfaces, creating forceful strokes, then smudging or erasing them as a means for reconstruction. The exhibition includes pictures inspired by her studies of grass fields while taking her family dog on walks in the countryside. She contemplates the cycle of life found in the wilderness and in man-made environments, seeking to grasp the dialectical relationships between man, nature and the universe.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術) 180, Heping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市和平東路180號), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ Tomorrow; until Nov. 30
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Contemporary Art Center
The 26th edition of Taipei’s long running contemporary art fair, Art Taipei (台北國際藝術博覽會), kicks off today. The fair will feature 141 international and local galleries, with a thematic focus on the reproduction of light. According to the fair’s press release, light is a metaphor for infinite possibilities and a fundamental sign of creation. In addition to the anticipated gallery presentations, the fair will also include a retrospective of Taiwanese modern art after the end of martial law, and a section — MIT — that is dedicated to showcasing young local talent.
■ Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 (台北世貿中心展覽1館), 5, Sec 5, Xinyi Rd, Taipei City (台北市信義五段5號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open today from 2 to 7pm, tomorrow and Sunday from 11 am to 7pm, and Monday from 11 am to 6pm
■ Today until Monday
Photo Courtesy of Mindset Art Center
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, a pioneering school of applied arts and architecture that operated in Weimar and subsequently Dessau, Germany between the two world wars. As part of its internationally traveling program, Virtual Bauhaus (虛擬包浩斯) will be opening today at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館). The show is a recreation of the school’s building in Dessau, through which visitors can walk and experience its iconic modern architecture and design.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2896-1000 X 2432. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until Jan. 5
Photo Courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Beatrice Glow is an interdisciplinary artist working in a variety of mediums, including performance, painting, experiential technology, olfactory art and video. For Flowers and Forts, currently on view at Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心), Glow presents a series of video works, prints on silk and parts of her ongoing research project between Mannahatta (today’s Manhattan) and Rhun of the Banda Islands in Indonesia. Both islands share traces of traumatic pasts under European colonization and were exchanged by the Dutch and English in 1667. Glow’s research revolves around the wild flowers growing around historical forts, which suggests a narrative of exploitation, regeneration and resilience.
■ Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心), 11, Ln 49, Baoan St, Taipei City (保安街49巷11號), tel: (02) 2550-1231. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 10
Last week the government announced that by year’s end Taiwan will have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world. Its inventory could exceed 1,400, or enough for the opening two hours of an invasion from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Snark aside, it sounds impressive. But an important piece is missing. Lost in all the “dialogues” and “debates” and “discussions” whose sole purpose is simply to dawdle and delay is what the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) alternative special defense budget proposal means for the defense of Taiwan. It is a betrayal of both Taiwan and the US. IT’S
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was crowned best picture at the 98th Academy Awards, handing Hollywood’s top honor to a comic, multi-generational American saga of political resistance. The ceremony Sunday, which also saw Michael B. Jordan win best actor and “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw make Oscar history as the first female director of photography to win the award, was a long-in-coming coronation for Anderson, a San Fernando Valley native who made his first short at age 18 and has been one of America’s most lionized filmmakers for decades. Before Sunday, Anderson had never won an Oscar. But “One Battle
In Kaohsiung’s Indigenous People’s Park (原住民主題公園), the dance group Push Hands is training. All its members are from Taiwan’s indigenous community, but their vibe is closer to that of a modern, urban hip-hop posse. MIXING CULTURES “The name Push Hands comes from the idea of pushing away tradition to expand our culture,” says Ljakuon (洪濬嚴), the 44-year-old founder and main teacher of the dance group. This is what makes Push Hands unique: while retaining their Aboriginal roots, and even reconnecting with them, they are adamant about doing something modern. Ljakuon started the group 20 years ago, initially with the sole intention of doing hip-hop dancing.
You would never believe Yancheng District (鹽埕) used to be a salt field. Today, it is a bustling, artsy, Kowloon-ish “old town” of Kaohsiung — full of neon lights, small shops, scooters and street food. Two hundred years ago, before Japanese occupiers developed a shipping powerhouse around it, Yancheng was a flat triangle where seawater was captured and dried to collect salt. This is what local art galleries are revealing during the first edition of the Yancheng Arts Festival. Shen Yu-rung (沈裕融), the main curator, says: “We chose the connection with salt as a theme. The ocean is still very near, just a
RSS