In Searching Light (追光), Chinese painter Meng Yangyang (孟陽陽) draws on his experiences growing up in Chongqing and Beijing during the 1980s. Meng’s work explores the impact of rapid economic development on people of his generation, who enjoy new privileges but also face complex and unexpected challenges.
■ Nou Gallery (新畫廊), 232, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段232號), tel: (02) 2700-0239. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3:30pm. Until Oct. 28
Photo courtesy of Nou Gallery
Now on display at Art Door Gallery (藝境畫廊), A Dot But Not Just a Dot … by Chris Chou (周蘭惠) is a series of abstract paintings that examine the Biblical story of manna from the heavens. Using geometric lines, bright colors and intense, rhythmic strokes and patterns, Chou’s artwork reflects on religious language, ethical standards and moral issues in society.
■ Art Door Gallery (藝境畫廊), 5F, 36, Ln 164, Hulin St, Taipei City (台北市虎林街164巷36號5樓), tel: (02) 2345-6773. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 7
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
American artist Antoine Predock used half a century of architectural experience to create the works seen in A Poetic Architect Who Praises Nature. Predock followed cues from the land and local culture at the beginning of the design process for each of his buildings. The exhibit will feature art by Predock and a documentary about his architectural work.
■ N1 gallery, URS21, 21 Minsheng E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市民生東路一段21號), tel: (02) 2562-1617. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Oct. 28
The pieces in Lu De-hwa’s (羅得華) Mountain Cloud Walk: Living Glass Art (山 雲 行: 生活琉璃) feature restrained shapes and black and white designs inspired by monochromatic ink landscape paintings. The delicate nature of Lo’s work seeks to evoke swirling, ephemeral mountain mists.
■ Anderson Art (安德昇藝術), 151 Zhouzi St, Taipei City (台北市洲子街151號), tel: (02) 8751-6565. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Sept. 16
Tommy Chen’s (陳道明) canvases express nostalgia for the vast plateau landscapes of Shandong, China, where the artist grew up before moving to Taiwan as a teenager. The fluctuations in color as well as the sculptural texture of Chen’s works are reminiscent of the jumping beats of a melody. While some artists strive to control color and technique, Chen focuses on unleashing the unconscious into the conscious.
■ 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 X1588. Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Sept. 30
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
It was just before 6am on a sunny November morning and I could hardly contain my excitement as I arrived at the wharf where I would catch the boat to one of Penghu’s most difficult-to-access islands, a trip that had been on my list for nearly a decade. Little did I know, my dream would soon be crushed. Unsure about which boat was heading to Huayu (花嶼), I found someone who appeared to be a local and asked if this was the right place to wait. “Oh, the boat to Huayu’s been canceled today,” she told me. I couldn’t believe my ears. Surely,
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