Eslite Gallery presents The Universe in a Grain of Dust (世界微塵裡), a retrospective of the late Taiwanese painter Lee An-cheng (李安成). Lee grew up around an elder brother who was keen on fostering an appreciation of the arts among his younger siblings. In their household, materials for painting and calligraphy were readily available, while Lee showed promising talent in both areas at an early age. Lee’s 1987 debut solo exhibition garnered considerable attention in ink art circles. Despite being trained in traditional techniques, Lee showed little interest in copying past styles and showed originality and modern spirit. He drew from his own lived experiences, including childhood memories and observations of his surrounding environment. Lee enjoyed a career of several stylistic phases, from early figures and landscapes works to later years of free, wild brushstrokes that express a sense of artistic freedom. The exhibition includes works entrusted by the artist to the gallery.
■ 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. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Starts tomorrow. Until Oct. 13
Photo Courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Over the last four years, Galerie Nichido Taipei has maintained an ongoing program of guest-curated shows that encourage deeper cultural exchange between Japan and Taiwan. A new show curated by Guo Jau-lan (郭昭蘭) opens tomorrow. Rotating Exploded View Diagram of Historiography (旋轉歷史編撰學的爆炸圖) is a group exhibition that seeks to present art in the context of a historical mapping. Referencing a schematic diagram style called exploded view, in which components are rendered in a deconstructed three dimensional model, Guo sees the exhibition as an analytical space where relationships and order are emphasized. Show highlights include Hotel Edgar Quintet, a painting of a Parisian hotel by prominent 20th century Japanese artist Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita. Taipei-based artist Au Sow-yee (區秀詒) presents an extension of her 2018 work, Nanyang Intelligence Bureau (南洋情報交換所) that focuses on power relations between Japan, Taiwan, countries of the ASEAN group and the politics that concern their surrounding seas.
■ Galerie Nichido Taipei (台北日動畫廊), 3F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號3樓), tel: (02) 2579-8795. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Starts tomorrow. Until Oct. 20
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Presently on view at Tina Keng Gallery is a solo exhibition by Lin Ju (林鉅). Lin is known for his distinct painting style that often shows obscure or mysterious symbols adapted from various world religions and myths. Flowing Reformation (九節拂風) draws its Chinese title from Buddhist breathing exercises that the artist practices, and involves nine cycles of breathing. This method is related to ideas of self-generation and immortality, a central theme in Lin’s artistic practice. “Twice I’ve come into this world,” he once said. “Chaotic the first time, estranged the second.” A selection of works inspired by Lin’s recent encounter of Sanyu’s (常玉) paintings last year at the gallery will be on display. These works are double sided, showing a painting on one side of the canvas and drafts and drawings on the other, which, when combined, reveal an intriguing process of thought and action.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 6
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Huang Hua-chen (黃華真) is a Taipei-based painter and lecturer whose recent works convey her spiritual contemplations based on the Christian faith. Her solo exhibition, In Wilderness: Beam Through the Dust (曠野的溫柔), at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum includes works that reference stories from the Old Testament. Huang examines biblical anecdotes to examine her own doubt, anger and fatigue, and how has art helped her mediate such periods of struggles and transformation.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館 TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays
■ Until Nov. 3
Photo Courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
Sera Chen (陳郁文) creates video installations, photographs and new media works that explore the dynamics and relationships between man, nature and society. Her solo exhibition, Everyday Fictionality: Beholding Shadows of Illusion (日常的虛構重建：虛與實的感知體系), features a video installation that reveals an interplay between readymade objects, virtual objects and appropriated objects, as well as an encounter between computer rendered realities and physical spaces. The show examines the changing definitions of nature, artificiality, reality and simulation.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館 TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays
■ Until Nov. 3
Dec. 8 to Dec. 14 Chang-Lee Te-ho (張李德和) had her father’s words etched into stone as her personal motto: “Even as a woman, you should master at least one art.” She went on to excel in seven — classical poetry, lyrical poetry, calligraphy, painting, music, chess and embroidery — and was also a respected educator, charity organizer and provincial assemblywoman. Among her many monikers was “Poetry Mother” (詩媽). While her father Lee Chao-yuan’s (李昭元) phrasing reflected the social norms of the 1890s, it was relatively progressive for the time. He personally taught Chang-Lee the Chinese classics until she entered public
Last week writer Wei Lingling (魏玲靈) unloaded a remarkably conventional pro-China column in the Wall Street Journal (“From Bush’s Rebuke to Trump’s Whisper: Navigating a Geopolitical Flashpoint,” Dec 2, 2025). Wei alleged that in a phone call, US President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over Taiwan. Wei’s claim was categorically denied by Japanese government sources. Trump’s call to Takaichi, Wei said, was just like the moment in 2003 when former US president George Bush stood next to former Chinese premier Wen Jia-bao (溫家寶) and criticized former president Chen
As I finally slid into the warm embrace of the hot, clifftop pool, it was a serene moment of reflection. The sound of the river reflected off the cave walls, the white of our camping lights reflected off the dark, shimmering surface of the water, and I reflected on how fortunate I was to be here. After all, the beautiful walk through narrow canyons that had brought us here had been inaccessible for five years — and will be again soon. The day had started at the Huisun Forest Area (惠蓀林場), at the end of Nantou County Route 80, north and east
A six-episode, behind-the-scenes Disney+ docuseries about Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week: Chip and Joanna Gaines take on a big job revamping a small home in the mountains of Colorado, video gamers can skateboard through hell in Sam Eng’s Skate Story and Rob Reiner gets the band back together for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. MOVIES ■ Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man
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