Taiwanese-Swiss artist Una Ursprung (許常郁) will show her new oil and acrylic spray paint on canvas paintings at her solo show Accomplishing A Forest (一座森林的完成). In these new works, Ursprung’s use of two different paints form a dual narrative, enticing visitors to imagine a world weaved by various viewpoints.
■ 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 Oct. 1
Photo courtesy of Da Xiang Art Space
White Stone Gallery presents Japanese artist Shozo Shimamoto’s mix medium works in Shozo Shimamoto X AU (嶋本昭三 X AU), which will feature expressionistic abstract acrylic paintings with household paint, glass-fragments and film sheets, as well as a variety of other objects. As one of the first members and key thinkers of Gutai, a prestigious Japanese art group and movement, Shimamoto formed an early international network with American artists like Jackson Pollock and Ray Johnson.
■ 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 Sept. 24
Photo courtesy of River Art
The Core (核心) is currently showing Chiu Dou’s (邱掇) abstract acrylic paintings. Sometimes mixed with the use of charcoal and pencil, Chiu’s works are often monochromatic and his control of layers of light is also very intriguing, enabling an examination of painting’s intrinsic nature.
■ Gaiart (㮣藝術), No. 9-4, Pu-Cheng Rd, Taipei City (台北市浦城街9-4號), tel: (02) 2363-2000. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1:30pm to 7pm.
■ Until Sept. 17
Photo courtesy of White Stone Gallery
Lee Cheng-hsun (李政勳) will show his abstract acrylic paintings in a show of new works called Time in Transience (忽忽). In his large horizontal painting The Day Will Come Again, Lee conveys the closeness and distance among human interactions and the relations between humans and nature. Lee’s work shows an exceptional sense of time, with the geometric fragments forming an unseen web of inter-dimensional grids.
■ Nan Gallery (南畫廊), 3F-7, 200 Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段200號), tel: (02) 2751-1155, Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6pm
■ Opening tomorrow at 3pm. Until Sept. 24
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Peggy Wu (吳美琪) will take part in Aura Gallery’s Summer Showcase II with her brightly saturated photography of her still-life prints. Her arrangement of mirrors in the composition suggests a contemporary version of works by the likes of Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and Rene Magritte. In Wu’s 2017 work, XYX — A Moveable Feast #1-2, t raises questions of ephemerality and eternity while fresh fruit and mirrors hint at the inevitable mortality of life.
■ Aura Gallery Taipei (亦安畫廊台北), 313, Dunhua N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段313號); tel: (02) 2752-7002. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from noon to 7pm
■ Opening today from 6pm. Until Sept. 16
At the summer group show, Nothing But Happy (快樂進行曲), visitors will see Huang Ming-chang’s (黃銘昌) large oil painting Leisurely Floating (2004). As one of the most prominent landscape painters in contemporary Taiwan, his work offers a raw and down-to-earth vision of the nation’s culture and agricultural history, which recalls a nostalgia similar to contemporary works by Yeh Tzu-chi (葉子奇) and Hong Jiang-po (洪江波).
■ 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
■ Until Sept. 24
A Gaze into the Illusory Transformation (凝視的幻化) will showcase Chu De-hua’s (曲德華) painted stainless steel mesh sculptures. As opposed to the traditional approach to sculpture, Chu’s signature style of using industrial building materials that merge two-dimensional and three-dimensional planes. The resulting sculptures give off a sense of lightness and an illusion that they are floating.
■ Da Xiang Art Space (大象藝術空間館), 15 Boguan Rd, Taichung City (台中市博館路15號), tel: (04) 2208-4288. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 8pm
■ Until Oct. 8
What I Hear (聽見) features ink and color on paper paintings by Chiang Hsin-ching (江心靜) at River Art in Miaoli County’s Sanyi Township. Chiang uses multiple techniques of contemporary ink painting that blend styles East and West. Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton has created a musical suite for the solo exhibition. By integrating poems, paintings and music, the exhibition represents the voices that echo in the artist’s mind.
■ River Art (大河美術), 305 Shuimei St, Sanyi Township, Miaoli County (苗栗縣三義鄉水美街305號), tel: (037) 876-576. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening tomorrow from 2pm to 5pm. Until Oct. 15
Last week the story of the giant illegal crater dug in Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃) emerged into the public consciousness. The site was used for sand and gravel extraction, and then filled with construction waste. Locals referred to it sardonically as the “Meinong Grand Canyon,” according to media reports, because it was 2 hectares in length and 10 meters deep. The land involved included both state-owned and local farm land. Local media said that the site had generated NT$300 million in profits, against fines of a few million and the loss of some excavators. OFFICIAL CORRUPTION? The site had been seized
Next week, candidates will officially register to run for chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). By the end of Friday, we will know who has registered for the Oct. 18 election. The number of declared candidates has been fluctuating daily. Some candidates registering may be disqualified, so the final list may be in flux for weeks. The list of likely candidates ranges from deep blue to deeper blue to deepest blue, bordering on red (pro-Chinese Communist Party, CCP). Unless current Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) can be convinced to run for re-election, the party looks likely to shift towards more hardline
Sept. 15 to Sept. 21 A Bhutanese princess caught at Taoyuan Airport with 22 rhino horns — worth about NT$31 million today — might have been just another curious front-page story. But the Sept. 17, 1993 incident came at a sensitive moment. Taiwan, dubbed “Die-wan” by the British conservationist group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), was under international fire for being a major hub for rhino horn. Just 10 days earlier, US secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt had recommended sanctions against Taiwan for its “failure to end its participation in rhinoceros horn trade.” Even though Taiwan had restricted imports since 1985 and enacted
The depressing numbers continue to pile up, like casualty lists after a lost battle. This week, after the government announced the 19th straight month of population decline, the Ministry of the Interior said that Taiwan is expected to lose 6.67 million workers in two waves of retirement over the next 15 years. According to the Ministry of Labor (MOL), Taiwan has a workforce of 11.6 million (as of July). The over-15 population was 20.244 million last year. EARLY RETIREMENT Early retirement is going to make these waves a tsunami. According to the Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the
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