Yang Meng-lun (楊孟倫) and Yeh Chan-yun (葉展昀) will debut their digital photography with limited edition prints at their show, About Time (故事). The two young artists travelled extensively to cities in Vietnam, China, England, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan over the past few years. Visitors should expect strong visuals in the duo’s powerful portraits of locals as well as everyday details from their journeys. Proceeds of the exhibition will benefit Junyi Academy (均一教育平台), which provides free virtual supplemntal education for Taiwanese students.
■ Caves Art Center (敦煌藝術中心), 91, Fujin St, Taipei City (台北市富錦街91號), tel: (02) 2718-2091. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm, Sundays from 1pm to 7pm, Mondays by appointment.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 13
Photo courtesy of Laddie John Dill Studio, White Stone Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery
Paris-based Leo Wang (王建文) will present a new series of abstract oil paintings at Liang Gallery in a solo exhibition titled The Stargazers (觀星者). Wang uses various techniques and fine brushstrokes to create fragments from the intersection of reality and non-reality. His compositions consist of hazy, colorful blocks that create reflections and distortions, posing both literal and philosophical questions on perspective and existence.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號), tel: (02) 2797-1100. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Blurring the boundaries of art and fashion, Chen Hsiao-hsi (陳曉熙) will present quirky mixed media installations at her solo show Nature (天生性格) at Nunu Fine Art. One example is an untitled sculptural piece resembling a shoe with feathers that as a whole looks like a plant, hinting at design imitating life.
■ Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術), 5, Ln 67, Jinshan S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市金山南路1段67巷5號), tel: (02) 3322-6207. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 7pm.
■ Opens Sunday. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Pong Ding
American artist Laddie John Dill’s intricate installations will be shown at his exhibition, Contained Radience (載光體), at White Stone Gallery. A prominent member of the Light and Space movement that originated in California, Dill employs materials such as sand, glass and light to create a microcosm of landscape art within the gallery’s interior space. Continuing the tradition of using lights in installations by masters like Dan Flavin and Christian Herdeg, Dill has created an impressive body of work that explores the effects of lights on human perception.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
Photo courtesy of Caves Art Center
Along with five other members of the artist alliance, Ouroboros Organic Organisms of O (?機體), Chen Yi-yun (陳逸云) will participate in the group show Atypical Human (非典人類) at Taipei’s Yiri Arts. The exhibit is a well-curated project that explores the past, present and future of human beings. Chen’s conceptual works take form in digital printouts of fictional designs for the elderly — from a music hall to a bar, garden, shop, playground and bedroom. These compositions seem practical, but are actually sarcastic.
■ Yiri Arts (伊日藝術), 4-1, 5, Ln 768, Bade Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市八德路四段768巷5號4樓之1), tel: (02) 2786-3866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm.
■ Opens today. Until Sept. 3
Photo courtesy of Caves Art Center
Belgian architect and artist Stijn Ank’s exhibition Unvoid (在空之間) will showcase his site-specific abstract fresco paintings and 3D works. Using plaster, concrete and other materials, Ank also makes abstract, pillar-like structures on site.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3721. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm.
■ Opens today. Until Sept. 10
Photo courtesy of Shin Leh Yuan Art Space
With her solo exhibition The Idler’s Hasty Gaze (閒暇者的忙碌凝視), Eszter Chen (陳純虹) will display her colorful fauvist paintings, mostly involving female portraiture and still life. Chen’s strong attraction to Henri Matisse may remind the viewer of British artist David Hockney’s light palettes, landing somewhere in the cross-section of 20th century and contemporary art.
■ Pon Ding (朋丁), 6, Ln 53, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山北路一段53巷6號), tel: (02) 2537 7281. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 20
Li Ei-chen’s (李翊誠) two-dimensional mixed media work can be seen at the show, Not Pleasant Not Contemporary (不討喜不當代). Combining photos he took documenting the 2014 gas explosion in his native Kaohsiung with silkscreen prints, Li’s works are indeed not pleasant. Almost in a tone of dark humor, he explores the different states of mind he has toward his hometown. The resulting colorful, semi-abstract collages serve as a compass that points his way back home.
■ Shin Leh Yuan Art Space (新樂園藝術空間), 15-2, Ln 11, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市中山北路二段11巷15-2號), tel: (02) 2561-1548. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Aug. 27
In 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) heroically seized residences belonging to the family of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “purchased with the proceeds of alleged bribes,” the DOJ announcement said. “Alleged” was enough. Strangely, the DOJ remains unmoved by the any of the extensive illegality of the two Leninist authoritarian parties that held power in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. If only Chen had run a one-party state that imprisoned, tortured and murdered its opponents, his property would have been completely safe from DOJ action. I must also note two things in the interests of completeness.
Taiwan is especially vulnerable to climate change. The surrounding seas are rising at twice the global rate, extreme heat is becoming a serious problem in the country’s cities, and typhoons are growing less frequent (resulting in droughts) but more destructive. Yet young Taiwanese, according to interviewees who often discuss such issues with this demographic, seldom show signs of climate anxiety, despite their teachers being convinced that humanity has a great deal to worry about. Climate anxiety or eco-anxiety isn’t a psychological disorder recognized by diagnostic manuals, but that doesn’t make it any less real to those who have a chronic and
When Bilahari Kausikan defines Singapore as a small country “whose ability to influence events outside its borders is always limited but never completely non-existent,” we wish we could say the same about Taiwan. In a little book called The Myth of the Asian Century, he demolishes a number of preconceived ideas that shackle Taiwan’s self-confidence in its own agency. Kausikan worked for almost 40 years at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reaching the position of permanent secretary: saying that he knows what he is talking about is an understatement. He was in charge of foreign affairs in a pivotal place in
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight last month symbolized the closest humanity has ever been to global catastrophe In this context, the legislature remains gridlocked over the general budget, mirroring tensions simmering across the globe. According to local soothsayers, this “extreme speed and violent conflict” is no coincidence as the Year of the Horse is the year of bingwu (丙午), the rare “Fire Horse Year” (火馬年) that occurs once every 60 years, a configuration carrying an energy that shapes everything from personal fortunes to international crises. “For some people, it can be a
RSS