The Japanese view rainbows as transitory moments in time, like the passing of a shooting star. In this context, the “As Long as Rainbows Last” exhibition deliberately chose rainbows as a motif because the sense of value in this area is less well defined. The exhibition focuses on expressionism in contemporary Japanese art through three sub themes; “Loss and Others” , “Tangible and Intangible” , “Culture and Sub-Culture.” At the same time, it also showcases artists who address the issue of traditional artistic values, thereby reflecting the changing values of Japanese society, whilst also discussing the meaning of the values that underpin art in general.

​Yunnan is also known as “Shangri-La”, which also means “The sun and moon in the heart,” representing the ideal peaceful country that people yearn to live in. For the art world, Yunnan is the birth place for the high-ranked artists in Chinese Contemporary Art market, artists such as Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Ye Yongqing, Pan Dehai, Tang Zhigang, … etc. all come from the culturally-rich Yunnan. Soka Art Center is proud to invite internationally-known curator, Victoria Lu, as the curator for one of the most important exhibition of the year, “The Seed from the Cradle of Yunnan - Yunnan Artists Group Exhibition.”

Ten artists are invited to take part in the Measurement of the Other --Contemporary Art from Taiwan, including Yang Mao-Lin, Lee Ming-Tse, Tao Ya-Lun, Lai Chiu-Chen, Chen Ching-Yao, Wu Chi-Tsung, Chu Chun-Teng, Fan Yang-Tsung, Chen Wan-Jen, Chen Ching-Yuan. Except Chu Chun-Teng who is now studying at Goldsmiths College for over one year, they are native artists born, brought up, studying, living and working in Taiwan, with their age between 26 years old and 57 years old, and the media for their creation including painting, sculpture, photography, video, computer graphics, digital video production, mechanical dynamics and devices. They are expecting to take this rare opportunity to demonstrate a variety of characteristics of the contemporary art from Taiwan rater completely and in a diversified way from the aspects of generations, creative ideas and contexts, to do the accumulative basic work well for future long-term exchanges of contemporary art.

Sang’s work transported the water from the major rivers of China, such as Changjiang River, Mudanjiang, Yarlung Zangbo River and Qiantang River, then he painted on the cloth silk with hand-made mineral substance. All materials of his work came from different geography spaces, he wants to express the modern generation’s understanding of nature and space in an even more macroscopic vision. Each area of grays on his work seems to overlap like monochromatic membrane. By deploying space across the paintings Sang marked his gestured and lyrical abstractions.

Ever since he started drawing graffiti on the streets at age four, Walasse Ting has reflected his life into his works and transformed into the famously known “Flowers Theif”. The bright and colorful paintings narrate his legend; the bold and frank expression of his works is the style of how Ting faced his life.

Born in 1970 in Hokkaido, Japan, IIDA Kiriko holds many solo exhibitions and participates in major international art fairs such as “Art Taipei 2008”(2008, Taipei), “Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair” (2007&2008, Tokyo), “2009 Young Art Taipei” (2009, Taipei) after graduating from Hokkaido Institute of Design. Her works achieve outstanding performances in every exhibition by carrying a reminiscence and fantastic style, expressing a sense of innocence and hope.