Purgatory (淨界) is a solo exhibition of oil paintings by Chinese artist Cen Long (岑龍). Cen’s stark representational paintings depict the harsh lives of peasants and minority peoples in China’s desolate regions.
■ Rong Ren Foundation for Arts and Culture (榮仁文化藝術基金會), 4F, 351, Ximen Rd, Sec 2, Tainan City (台南市西門路二段351號4樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 6pm. Tel: (06) 228-9516
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 9
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
Elsewhere‧Atmosphere (異境‧意境) is a group exhibit of six contemporary photographers from China.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2599-1171
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 2
Photo courtesy of Han Art Space
Brushing aside realism as an artistic trope, Hung Yi-chen (洪藝真) draws on the ideas of theorists such as Roland Barthes to focus the viewer’s attention on the process of creating a painting rather than the painting itself. Transpose (錯‧置) features a number of these “painting is dead” works, with the plasticity of the medium taking center stage.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號地下一樓). Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 2pm to 11pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm to 1am. Tel: (02) 2516-1060
■ Until Jan. 1
Art Supply (氣象萬千) forms part of an urban renewal project in Taipei’s Wanhua (萬華) District. Executed by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, the outdoor project includes six Taiwanese artists who apply their artistic visions to the area. Works on display range from the murals of Hung Tung-esque (洪通) creatures, installations using found objects such as driftwood and sculptures
of light.
■ 406 Plaza (萬華區406廣場) is located near Exit 1 of the Ximen MRT Station (西門捷運站) at the corner of Zhonghua Road Section 1 (中華路一段) and Changsha Street (長沙街), Taipei City.
■ Until March 28
Everlasting Efforts (努力不懈) presents 100 pieces of pottery and sculpture by Tseng Ming-nan (曾明男). Tseng’s work explores rural sentiments, friendships, family relationships and traditional culture. His creative style begins with ceramics, which he merges with other mediums such as glass, bronze, calligraphy and ink painting.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. Admission: NT$30
■ Until Jan. 23
It is barely 10am and the queue outside Onigiri Bongo already stretches around the block. Some of the 30 or so early-bird diners sit on stools, sipping green tea and poring over laminated menus. Further back it is standing-room only. “It’s always like this,” says Yumiko Ukon, who has run this modest rice ball shop and restaurant in the Otsuka neighbourhood of Tokyo for almost half a century. “But we never run out of rice,” she adds, seated in her office near a wall clock in the shape of a rice ball with a bite taken out. Bongo, opened in 1960 by
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