劉錡豫、金島隆弘
The Pleasure of Painting from Life: In Search of Kong-kíng in Modern Taiwanese Art
Chen Shang-Chien, Chiu Wei-Hsiang, Hu Jia-Qing, Lin Chuan-Chu, Tsai Tsung-Yu, Yang Fu-An, Yang Lee, Ishikawa Toraji, Saigō Kogetsu
For the 13th Ginza Curator’s Room, we welcome Liu Chi-Yu, a historian specializing in Taiwanese art, and Kaneshima Takahiro, Associate Professor at Kanazawa College of Art, to examine representations of landscape in Taiwan, from modern art to contemporary painting.
This exhibition presents works from life by seven artists active in Taiwan. The artists revisit landscapes that have been depicted through the practice of sketching since the modern era, bringing to them a contemporary perspective. The exhibition approaches these layered landscapes through the concept of kong-kíng (光景), where memories and emotions tied to place intersect with the spirit of each age. In doing so, the artists ask anew why and how such landscapes should be depicted.
The works are presented alongside video documentation of the seven artists’ creative processes. Also on view are works by two Japanese painters who contributed to the formation of modern Taiwanese art.
*This exhibition is presented as a related program of “Synchronic Constellation: Cross-Boundary Perspectives in Art”, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) on September 5.
2026.8.28 Fri. — 2026.9.17 Thu.
Closed on Sundays
10:00 — 18:00
Shibunkaku Ginza
Ichibankan-Building
5-3-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
“Synchronic Constellation: Cross-Boundary Perspectives in Art”
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), September 5 – December 13, 2026
Liu Chi-Yu, Kaneshima Takahiro
Surrounded by the sea on all sides, Taiwan is an island covering less than 40,000 square kilometers, yet it is home to more than 200 mountains rising over 3,000 meters above sea level. Shaped by its complex topography and climate, the island has given rise to a rich diversity of “landscapes.”
More than a century ago, Taiwanese painters began depicting the varied natural scenery of their homeland. Landscape became a medium through which a sense of longing for home, belonging, and cultural subjectivity could take shape. Reflecting both the spirit of the times and individual will, these enduring landscapes came to carry human thought and emotion, transforming into kong-kíng—resonant scenes shaped by memory, feeling, and the passage of time.
In this exhibition, a group of contemporary Taiwanese painters revisited the development of modern Taiwanese art through research conducted by curators from Taiwan and Japan. The artists traveled to historic painting sites once visited by painters of the past, including the Tainan Confucius Temple, Yuanshan in Taipei, and the Beiguan Coast in Yilan, where they created works from life. The process of their production was also visually documented.
In response to the exhibition’s theme, two works from Shibunkaku’s collection are also presented. A pair of landscape hanging scrolls by Saigo Kogetsu, who once visited Taiwan, offers a point of comparison with the exhibition’s contemporary works, while Ishikawa Toraji’s Afternoon Calm takes as its subject the harbor of Cijin in Kaohsiung. Around a century ago, Ishikawa also visited Taiwan on several occasions to paint from life.
Moving between paintings of the past and present, this exhibition considers the memory of landscape in modern Taiwanese art and the possibilities that the act of painting from life opens up today.
Liu Chi-Yu
Art Historian and Columnist. Liu holds an MA from the Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan Normal University. Since 2020, he has run Shuyuan Street Section 5 Art History Notes, a media platform dedicated to art history, while also contributing as a columnist to ARTouch. Through research, writing, and public outreach, he works to communicate the history of Taiwanese art to a wider audience.
Liu served as a research assistant at the Chen Cheng-po Cultural Foundation from 2018 to 2019. From 2024 to 2025, he worked as a curatorial researcher at the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery, where he participated in the co-curation of the exhibition Sunny Days: Li Mei-shu’s Cultural Encounters and Practice.
His column “Taiwan in Art History,” serialized in the quarterly magazine Kunpu, was shortlisted for the 47th Golden Tripod Awards in the category of Magazine Column Writing. His publications include After the Gods Depart: The Stories of Artifacts from the Taiwan Grand Shrine selected by Taipei Public Library for the 86th “Good Books for Everyone to Read” list in the category of children’s and young adult knowledge books. His co-authored publications include Home Is the Name of Taipei, Chihuahua Plan for World Domination: The Nelson Syndrome Chihuahua Masterpiece Series, and Alishan Is Not a Single Mountain, which was nominated for the 2026 Taipei International Book Exhibition Award in the Nonfiction category and the 50th Golden Tripod Awards in the Government Publications category.
Kaneshima Takahiro
Associate Professor, Art Studies SCAPe, Kanazawa College of Art. Kaneshima Takahiro holds a PhD in Fine Art from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts, where he received the Umehara Prize. His research focuses on collaboration within cultural ecosystems encompassing modern and contemporary art and craft in East Asia, curatorial practice, and art practice.
After serving as gallery manager at Tokyo Gallery + BTAP in Beijing, Kaneshima has been involved in art projects, international exchange programs, and research initiatives across East Asia. He has held a number of leading positions, including Executive Director of Art Fair Tokyo (2010–2015), Art Director of Art Beijing (2015–2017), Exhibition Director of Yanbaru Art Festival (2017–2025), and Program Director of ACK: Art Collaboration Kyoto (2020–2022).
In recent years, Kaneshima has also worked on collaborative projects with Taiwan, including co-curating Object Matters at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, in 2013, and Synchronous Constellations: Stars Sharing Time, A Transnational Artistic Gaze at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2026. Under the theme “Art Practice in Rich Rural Environments,” selected for the TeSH GAP Fund, he continues to pursue research and practice on collaboration within cultural ecosystems through artistic practice.