Zhang An's oil on canvas painting, Monument #1, is featured in Stance (Photo: Eslite Gallery)
Taipei's menu of museums run the gamut from world class curations to zany sculptures. Featuring some of Taiwan's most acclaimed artists, these exhibitons highlight various works reflective of Taiwan's contemporary art scene.
Stance
This group exhibition is centred on Hsia Yan’s signature “fuzzy-man-styled” metal sculptures. Half a century older than the other four artists, Hsia did not grow up in a time of stability and ample opportunities for academic training in art colleges. Instead, he underwent the throes of war and drifted from city to city before settling in Taiwan in 1949. Lin Yen Wei, Zhang An, Ngan Leong Cheung and Cheng Po-Tsung, who are all in their thirties, grew up in the age of digitalisation and are struggling to cope with the deterioration of society, fighting to have their voices heard. Stance presents the works of these five artists from different generations and regions, and their unique take on art, discussing the issues of consumerism, depression, abandonment, urbanisation and self-alienation.
Eslite Gallery, 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City. Until Aug 4. For more info, see here.
The Realm of Solitude
Known for his artistic vocabulary that is tinged with personal history, Wang Pan-Youn has cultivated a reserved, melancholic aesthetic of solitude in his work. Embodied through a minimal composition and a succinct palette, this exhibition highlights the artist’s personal struggle and emotional suffering. Wang’s paintings are a homage to his younger years filled with loneliness, displacement and the loss of love. His work permeates with an enduring sense of nostalgia and comes across as a wistful dream where home is but a distant memory. He depicts himself on canvas as solitary animals, humans, sails or houses, reflecting his mentality at the time.
Tina Keng Gallery, 1F, 15 Lane 548, Ruiguang Rd, Neihu District, Taipei City. Until Aug 18. For more info, see here.
Once Upon a Time — Unfinished Progressive Past
In celebration of MOCA Taipei’s 18th anniversary, Once Upon a Time is the first instalment of Contemporary Art Ongoing, MOCA Taipei’s new five-year curatorial project that invites an established curator to present an exhibition across five topics: the development of contemporary art, spatial creation, the critical review of the social system, contemporary art in Taiwan and the cross-disciplinary nature of contemporary art. Once Upon a Time exhibits the works of 16 artists and art collectives from the 1950s to 1980s, harking back to the period when contemporary art took shape in Taiwan. Curated by Kao Chien-Hui, the exhibition explores the lives and cultural memories of three post-war generations from the 1950s to the 1990s as well as their shared past of repression and upheaval.
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taipei, 39 Chang’an West Road, Datong District, Taipei City. Until Oct 13. For more info, see here.
