This year, ART TAIPEI’s grand celebration will come hand-in-hand with Asia Pacific Art Gallery Association (APAGA) in hopes of consolidating the respective strengths of each region, and moreover to unify the sophisticated, unwavering key players of the Asian art scene: Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Henceforth, this could encourage an influx of artistic perspectives from South East Asia and Europe. ART TAIPEI is proud to have invited a total of 150 domestic and foreign galleries: 67 from Taiwan, 11 from Europe, 42 from Japan/Korea, 19 from China, and 11 from South East Asia. There had been 55 galleries applying for the first time to be part of ART TAIPEI 2016 where 38 were successfully accepted into the fair after review and selection. In continuation of ART TAIPEI 2015’s feature sections, we will be reintroducing the following fair areas: Galleries, Future, Frontier, and Public Art. On top of these recurring aspects, we will also be launching a new section called Voice of Image. Altogether this forms a complete map of ART TAIPEI 2016’s exhibition areas. This reflects ART TAIPEI’s forward-looking mindset by incorporating multimedia innovations.
The main exhibition area Galleries consists of 135 galleries in total. Domestic galleries include Soka Gallery, Asia Art Center, Lin & Lin Gallery, Da Xiang Art Space, Gallery 100, LIANG Gallery, J.P. Art Center, Capital Art Center, Caves Art Center, Nou Gallery, AKI Gallery etc. Of these galleries, over 70 are important exhibitors of contemporary art in Taiwan. Artwork highlights are revealed as Soka Gallery’s Hong Ling’s revolutionary new works, Gallery 100’s Inoue Yuichi most recent calligraphy masterpieces, and Chu Weibor’s collection from Asia Art Center. Similarly, Lin & Lin Gallery’s Chieh-Jen Chen is also featuring a photograph series Realm of Reverberations The Ritual of Film Screening, which scrutinizes a social movement supporting the preservation of sanatoriums. Finally, CHINI gallery will not be forgetting its internationally recognized artist Xu Bing and long-time represented sculptor Lee Kuang-Yu, as both of their latest works are promised for exhibition.
Amongst our international galleries, one of our prominent newcomers is Germany’s Galerie Eigen + ART. Founded in Leipzig during the 80s, Galerie Eigen + ART emerged as an underground entreprise that fought against the system. Its antiestablishment nature accentuates its avant-garde and multi-perceptional outlook, hence enhancing its global influence even today. This year, the gallery will be revealing anticipated works like expressionist painter Tim Eitel’s Répétition, and multimedia artist Carsten Nicolai’s Tired Light n Diagonale. Having brought home exceptional results last year, Beijing’s Galleria Continua is once again advocating first-class international works, all of which includes sculptor Antony Gormley’s Station III, German-American Kiki Smith’s provincially conscious works, as well as Qiu Zhi Jie’s pieces.
Galleries like galerie nichido / nca | nichido contemporary art have also been striving to establish a foothold in Taipei’s art arena. This comes as no surprise seeing that Japan has continued to make outstanding contributions of modern art. This year, it will be bringing Ryo Yoshikawa and Ryuzaburo Umehara’s individual compositions. WAKO WORKS OF ART has notably prepared a special visual collection of Turner Prize Winner Wolfgang Tilman’s Untitled (Carton), Flanke and more. Additionally, Korea’s PYO Gallery will be unveiling the beauty of its own Korean paper creations accompanied by popular artist Chun Kwang Young’s Aggregation 07 - AG049 and monochrome painting master Li Yu Hwan’s rare 90s largescale piece Correspondence.
Spearheaded by Taiwan Art Gallery Association (TAGA) and in alliance with APAGA, ART TAIPEI 2016’s breadth of impact shall extend from Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, all the way to Australia. These 8 important members of APAGA will all be putting wonderful works on display from highly diverse galleries, as shown by Australia’s exhibition team (RLS, Showarts, and Turner Galleries), where all three galleries are expected to bring distinctive styles of Australian art to Taiwan. Not to mention, Malaysia’s Artemis Art and G13 Gallery as well as Indonesia’s Edwin’s Gallery and TONYRAKA Art Gallery will also undoubtedly be nothing short of phenomenal.
ART TAIPEI 2016 website: http://art-taipei.com/2016/en/
