Upcoming Event

THE NEXT STAGE Webinar Series Episode 3: Rethinking Residencies

The Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles partners with the Western Arts Alliance (WAA) to present six webinars titled as “THE NEXT STAGE: Essential Issues in Performing Arts Creation, Presentation, and Engagement” starting from April, 2021. The 3rd webinar “Rethinking Residencies” will take place at 5 PM PDT on June 23rd via Zoom with streaming on Facebook and YouTube channel of WAA. The Artistic Director of Very Theatre Chou Tung-Yen with performing arts professionals in the U.S. will be invited to explore the residency as a sustainable model for artist and community-centered presenting. The panelists, besides Chou Tung-Yen, include Jaciel Neri (the founder of CAMP_iN), Reneltta Arluk (Director of Indigenous Arts at BANFF Centre for Arts and Creativity), Rosie Herrera (Artistic Director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater), and Erin Boberg Doughton (Artistic Director & Curator of Performance at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art). And the moderator Christopher K Morgan, the Director of the Dance Residency Program at Art Omi, has joined many residency programs as being a Native Hawaiian choreographer. Welcome to join at https://www.westarts.org/news-updates/register-now-rethinking-residences.  For reviewing the last two webinars of “The Next Stage” series, please visit: Episode 1: Creation in Isolation - Adversity Meets Innovation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iQGcO3Z6JQ  Episode 2: Extending Our Reach - Performance in a Digital Age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVyKMuYq6uE

“Divine Immersion: The Experiential Art of Nick Dong” opens at the USC Pacific Asia Museum

"Divine Immersion: The Experiential Art of Nick Dong," co-presented by the Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles and the USC Pacific Asia Museum, will be open to the public from July 8th to October 3rd, 2021. This exhibition showcases six installations that guide participants through meditation and contemplation to get out of the pain brought by the pandemic, demonstrating the healing power of contemporary art from Taiwan. Besides the exhibition, there are activities planned for audiences, such as Mendsmith Project, Late Night Sound Bath, Mindful practices and writing, Meditation in the galleries, Classical Music Performance, workshops and conversations. For more information, please visit https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/exhibitions/upcoming.  Taiwanese artist Nick Dong (b. 1973) identifies as a 21st-century continuation of Wen-ren, the Chinese cultural lineage of intellect-scholars. Each work is a quest of self-evolution, a vehicle for sharing philosophy. By carefully integrating scientific and handcrafted components, supernatural movements, light, sound, and interactive strategies, Dong’s artworks produce a fully immersive event, only complete when the viewer activates it with their energy. Dong formulates his work to be incomplete without the viewer for good reason: to ignite an encounter that opens up new perspectives about each other and the world, illuminates the beauty in our broken places thus creating space for hope and healing.

Ongoing Event

“Focus on Taiwan” Launched at Frameline45

Following the first collaboration in 2020, Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles partners again with Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival to virtually present “Focus on Taiwan” through June 17th to 27th, 2021. This program comprises 3 feature films “Dear Tenant,” “As We Like It,” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?;” 1 shorts block entitled “Taiwan Shorts” includes “Unnamed,” “Taiwan Pride for the World,” “Hidden,” and “Undercurrent;” and a “Taiwan Focus” panel discussion. Moreover, director Hui-yu Su’s new work “The Women’s Revenge” will be screened at “Dark Twisted Fantasies.” The shorts block and the panel are free for viewing. All films can be viewed On-Demand throughout the United States. All are welcome to watch online. For more information, please visit: https://la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=1001&s=24846.

Welcome to visit “Treasures in Gold & Jade: Masterworks from Taiwan” at the Bowers Museum

"Treasures in Gold & Jade: Masterworks from Taiwan," co-presented by the Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles and the Bowers Museum, is now open to the public until September 5th, 2021. Twenty-seven carvings by Huang Fu-Shou show a surprising range of jade's colors: from emerald green to an almost pearlescent white. Seventeen poetic sculptures by Wu Ching capture the majesty of gold, breathing form into questions on the nature of being. For more information, please visit https://la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=1001&s=24834.  Wu Ching’s "Zen" (above left) is an illustration of Zen that he learned from studying Zen, reciting the "The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra," and meditating for many years. In Mandarin, cicada and Zen are both pronounced “chan.” Wu used this cicada as a homophonic pun to represent the state of Zen. Half of the golden insect is carved on the round sphere, but what about the other half? Is it inside or outside the sphere? Is it coming to this world or leaving this world? It seems cicada and Zen are indistinguishable. Huang Fu-Shou’s "Silence without Dust" (above right) is also a jade creation derived from Buddhist thought. Two lively butterflies hold a page of scraps of paper carved with "The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra" and Buddha's image, spreading the Gospel to the world through believers. This artwork also expresses that we can feel life and death. We can see, hear and contemplate the undisturbed purity and dustless silence.

Welcome to visit “After Hope” Exhibition in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles is collaborating with the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco to present “After Hope: Videos of Resistance,” which explores the role of hope in contemporary art and activism, running through December 2021. Three outstanding Taiwanese artists and their video works are invited, including Isa Ho's “Peony,” Guang-Ming Yuan’s “The 561st Hour of Occupation,” and Kuang-Yu Tsui’s “Stay Calm.” Tsui Kuang-Yu (b. 1974; Taipei, Taiwan) responds to the adaptive relationship between humans and society from a biological point of view. His "Keep Calm" was created during a residency at the San Francisco Chinese Cultural Center in 2018, where he lit a long fuse attached to him in San Francisco's Chinatown. Amidst the homeless people, tourists, gamblers, and children that flock to this public gathering area, this absurdly dangerous scene of igniting the fuse elicits no reaction from the people around him. In comparison to the energetic words of blessings in the traditional buildings in the square, he feels any absurdity doesn’t seem to be so strange anymore when these contradictions become part of everyday life. For more information, please visit https://la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=1001&s=24832.