Internationally renowned Taiwanese painters Leigh Wen (鄭麗雲) and Song Sheau-ming (宋曉明) are participating in a joint exhibition at Mingshan Art called Beauty Square (美的二次方). Wen’s new paintings continue her examination of classical Chinese thought and contemporary Western society through the motif of water. She uses a stylus to carve lines onto mural-sized impasto canvases of rich blues. Song’s abstract monochrome paintings express a dramatic tension between the real and unreal.
■ Mingshan Art (名山藝術) is located in Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號). Open daily from 11am to 7:30pm. Tel: (02) 3322-2988
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 2:30pm. Until Jan. 3
Photo courtesy of Mingshan Art
Japanese painter Shichinohe Masaru creates bizarre otaku portraits peopled with Lolita-like nymphets dressed in cute dresses and nurse’s uniforms. Harking back to the age of human innocence, Masaru’s realistic paintings with a surrealist bent narrate fairy tales that are simultaneously a dream and a nightmare.
■ Ping Art Space (平藝術空間), 179, Anhe Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市安和路二段179號). Open Monday to Saturday from 1pm to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2738-3317
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 4pm. Until Dec. 12
Art, Space, Complex (藝術的空間謎變) by May Hsu (徐秀美) is an on-site installation of stacked cages that symbolizes an existential view of human civilization. The work comments on the paradox between increased urbanization in an era where “people yearn for greener pasture[s] where they can breathe freely again.”
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2552-3720. Admission: NT$50
■ Until Dec. 12
Shi Jin-hua (石晉華), Juin Shieh (謝鴻均) and Nattawut Singthong return to basics with Black, White, Gray (黑‧白‧灰), an exhibit that sees the artists using rudimentary media such as charcoal and pencil to depict their daily experiences.
■ Sakshi Gallery (夏可喜當代藝術), 33 Yitong Street, Taipei City (台北市伊通街33號). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9:30pm, Sundays from 1:30pm to 7:30pm. Tel: (02) 2516-5386
■ Until Nov. 28
More Things Could Be Remembered and Forgotten (可以記憶和可以遺忘的) is a solo show by poet, calligrapher and painter Chiang Hsun (蔣勳). Hsun’s work depicts the experiences and memories of his life through vibrant flower paintings that are evocative of Taiwan’s natural beauty.
■ Gallery 100 (百藝畫廊), 6, Ln 30, Changan E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市長安東路一段30巷6號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2536-2120
■ Until Dec. 5
Multiplicity, Juxtaposition, Liberation: Exhibition for Spanish Ceramic Art (多重‧並置‧解放: 西班牙陶藝展) interprets recent trends in Spanish ceramic art. Curated by Jose Miranda, the exhibition offers a conversation between artists from different generations, who assemble works that employ media such as painting, sculpture and photography. The show is divided into four parts: the relationship between ceramic art, sculpture and painting; the dialogue between ceramic objects, minimalism and conceptual art; interaction of ceramic art and installation, space and viewers; and the displays of ceramic art with video art media.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: (02) 8677-2727. Admission: NT$99
■ Until Feb. 27
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kinross, claimed to have seen a giant diamond-shaped aircraft flying above them. It apparently had no clear means of propulsion and left no smoke plume; it was silent and static, as if frozen in time. Terrified, they hit the ground and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Then a Harrier fighter jet roared into view, circling the diamond as if sizing it up for a scuffle. One of the men snapped a series of photographs just before the bizarre
Power struggles are never pretty. Fortunately, Taiwan is a democracy so there is no blood in the streets, but there are volunteers collecting signatures to recall nearly half of the legislature. With the exceptions of the “September Strife” in 2013 and the Sunflower movement occupation of the Legislative Yuan and the aftermath in 2014, for 16 years the legislative and executive branches of government were relatively at peace because the ruling party also controlled the legislature. Now they are at war. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the presidency and the Executive Yuan and the pan-blue coalition led by the
For decades, Taiwan Railway trains were built and serviced at the Taipei Railway Workshop, originally built on a flat piece of land far from the city center. As the city grew up around it, however, space became limited, flooding became more commonplace and the noise and air pollution from the workshop started to affect more and more people. Between 2011 and 2013, the workshop was moved to Taoyuan and the Taipei location was retired. Work on preserving this cultural asset began immediately and we now have a unique opportunity to see the birth of a museum. The Preparatory Office of National