The annual New York MoCCA Arts Festival will take place at the “Metropolitan West” in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, on April 7st and 8st. This exhibition features independent comics, and cartoon artists. The Taipei Cultural Center is delighted to present award-winning comic artists Ruan Guang-Min, Zuo Hsuan and illustrator Huang Yu-Ming at the festival with the goal of facilitating the international visibility of Taiwanese comics and graphic novels in the US.
MoCCA Arts Festival Information:
Date: April 7-8, 2018, 11am to 6pm
Venue: Metropolitan West (636 W. 46th Street)
Taipei Cultural Center Booth: F206&207
Organizer: Society of Illustrators
Website: https://www.societyillustrators.org/mocca-arts-festival
Comics Workshop Information (No.1):
This workshop is co-organized by the Taipei Cultural Center and the New York Public Library. Artists Ruan Guang-Min and Zuo Hsuan will demonstrate their art styles and discuss elements of Taiwanese culture and customs through their artwork. This event is free and open to the public.
Date: Monday, April 9th ,2018, 6-8pm
Venue: Program Room, Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street (476 Fifth Avenue)
Free admission, RSVP: oliviasu@moc.gov.tw
Comics Workshop Information (No.2):
This workshop is co-organized by the Taipei Cultural Center and the Society of Illustrators. Artists Ruan Guang-Min and Zuo Hsuan will demonstrate their art styles and discuss elements of Taiwanese culture and customs through their artwork.
Date: Tuesday, April 10th , 2018, 6:30-8:30pm
Venue: Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd Street)
Buy ticket: https://www.societyillustrators.org/shop/buy-tickets/1925
About the Comic Artists:
Ruan Guang-Min阮光民is a Taiwanese graphic novelist and illustrator. After leaving the military, he had been worked as an assistant to comic artist Lai Yu-Hsien. His first work to receive recognition was an adaptation of the TV show Friends, using the comic form to tell a moving story about a group of young people from the countryside struggling to make a living in Taipei. His book Dong Hua Chun Barbershop was the first Taiwanese comic to be adapted into a television series.
In 2017, Ruan released “Yong-Jiu Grocery Store (用九柑仔店) drawing inspiration from childhood memories with his grandfather. Through illustrating the stories of common people in Taiwanese society, the manga not only presents the everyday life in Taiwan but also brings back collective memories shared by all those who lived on the island. Ruan’s ability to imbue his stories with a sense of warm, touching humor and reconnect readers with the land of Taiwan through comics has made him the winner of the 2017 Comic of the Year Award with “Yong-Jiu Grocery Store” at the 8th Golden Comic Awards.
Zuo Hsuan左萱started illustrating and creating comics in college by providing illustration for many novels’ covers. Her illustration and comic works have a heartwarming tone, expressing delicate and sincere feelings between people. In 2014, she released her first long comic work “The Summer Temple Fair” in Creative Comic Collection, published by Gaea Books Co. She draws creative inspiration from childhood memories of Daxi’s elaborate temple parades involving thousands of devotees, some dressed as oversized gods, others carrying aloft ornate sedan chairs containing figures of deities.