Art Taichung (台中藝術博覽會) is back for the third year in a row, showcasing some of the finest modern art found in galleries across Taiwan. Participating galleries include Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館) who will be representing Chen Ke (陳可), a Chinese artist known for her cute paintings of lonely-looking button-nose girls. For Art Taichung though, her paintings take on a more subdued tone with grayish hues — this time, the loneliness is direct rather than implied. Bluerider Art (藍騎士藝術空間) will also be participating, and they will be representing Italian artist Brigitta Rossetti, whose lovely, Pottery Barn-like floral paintings are inspired by the surrounding nature of her studio which is also an old barn in the Italian countryside. Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心) has an interesting line-up of works by Taiwanese artist Chang Li-ren (張立人) whose Skin Flick Series of pin-up women in digital picture frames stripping to the nude was quite a hit at Art Taipei last year. In addition to wearing the artist’s hat, Chang is an outspoken social critic who isn’t shy to comment on the increasing disparity of wealth in Taiwan.
■ Millennium Vee Hotel Taichung (台中日月千禧酒店), 14-17F, 77 Shizheng Rd, Taichung City (台中市市政路77號14-17樓). Open tomorrow and Sunday from 12pm to 9pm, Monday from 12pm to 6pm. Admission: NT$150
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Monday
Photo courtesy of Michael Ku Gallery
Aki Gallery will be featuring for the sixth year in a row, Y.E.S. TAIWAN VI — Young Emerging Stars of Taiwan, an exhibition showcasing Taiwan’s newest artistic talents. The seven artists this year were chosen for their artwork which illustrates what has come to characterize the millennial generation — a fast-paced way of doing things, so-called hook-up culture and an over-saturated pop culture where pictures do not say more than a thousand words. Wang Tzu-ting (王姿婷) shows versatility in her work — Waterland, a quirky rainbow-colored depiction of interlocking slides which appear to represent the nostalgia of an idyllic childhood, provides a nice contrast to her solemn gray sketches of solitary people. You Wen-di (游雯迪)’s paintings on silk scrolls appear to resemble a more traditional approach, but her main subjects are ultrasound images of distorted creatures. In a world filled with chaos and uncertainty, the restless creatures take refuge in the womb.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 12pm to 6:30pm
■ Until July 26
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
Taipei’s Lin & Lin Gallery will be honoring the late Ni Tsai-chin (倪再沁) whose work spanned sculptures and ink paintings to environmental installations. Endless Roaming: Ni Tsai-chin, 1955-2015 (任倘佯：倪再沁 1955-2015) will showcase Ni’s ink paintings of landscapes, as well as his bolder, pop art-inspired paintings. Ni was known to criticize the state of Taiwan’s art scene throughout his decades-long career, most notably for raising the question of whether or not there was a correct way to absorb or transliterate Western influences in local art. Some of his more powerful work include his scrolls — for this series, Ni purchased replicas of famous ink paintings which he then painted over, obliterating the official seals and inscriptions, thereby raising the question of what makes a piece of artwork original or authentic.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16, Dongfeng St, Taipei City (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 2
Photo courtesy of Digital Art Center
Knitting a Paratextual Body (身體造景) is a solo exhibition by Huang Meng-chin (黃盟欽) which explores the subtexts and symbolism of the human body through haunting videography. Memories, displacement and intimacy are all concepts that Huang is interested in for this particular exhibition, which is held at the Digital Art Center in Taipei. In The Kiss, two people with their faces cloaked in cloth are filmed in a lip-lock. The result is that an intimate act is rendered eerily cold and distant. The question of what it means to be a “real” person is raised in Anamorphic Body, where Huang overlays a series of digital projections to compose portraits. He also uses sound installation in some of his work in order to provide viewers with a multisensory experience.
■ Digital Art Center (台北數位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, Taipei City (台北市福華路180號), tel: (02) 7736-0708. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Aug. 2
Photo courtesy of Metaphysical Art Gallery
Pop art, fantastical images and abstract shapes are the order of the day at Taipei’s Metaphysical Art Gallery. Absolute Intuition (非常直覺) will showcase the works of ten artists from different generations around Asia, all of whom are known for their flamboyant style and quirky propensities. South Korean artist Kim Dong-yoo’s pop art-style portraits of iconic people which are made out of pixels of the faces of other famous people, will be on display — the pairing of Marilyn Monroe and John F Kennedy is a particularly humorous one. Also up for viewing is Japanese cartoonist Yoshitaka Amano’s anime drawings. After decades of creating anime characters for books and video games, Amano has been exhibiting his drawings — of which many have assumed pop icon status — in galleries around the world. Renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic polka dot paintings and sculptures will be part of the exhibition as well.
■ Metaphysical Art Gallery (形而上畫廊), 7F, 219, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段219號7樓), tel: (02) 2771-3236. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 10
Photo courtesy of Metaphysical Art Gallery
Project Rrose: Indifferent Selavy (若絲計畫：冷漠的賽拉薇) is a solo exhibition by Wang Jun-Jieh (王俊傑) at MOCA, Taipei. A video and new media artist, Wang tries his hand at photography by paying tribute to French-American artist Marcel Duchamp’s pseudonym and female alter ego, Rrose Selavy by reconstructing photographs of men dressed as women, something which Duchamp started doing in the 1920s — except it was Duchamp himself who donned the hats and boas, while Wang uses a model. The exhibition elegantly highlights how concepts of gender identity and fluidity are as relevant today as they were nearly a hundred years ago. The exhibition also encourages viewers to find beauty in the odd and unusual.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Aug. 16
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