TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) is showcasing the Dutch modern artist and photographer Erwin Olaf’s series of works, which span four decades, until November.

Curated by Jin Park Hyun (朴賢珍) of the Suwon Museum of Art in South Korea, the exhibition titled “Perfect Moment – Incomplete World” features Olaf’s 130 major works, including photography, installation, and video footage. It has four sub-categories and is Olaf’s first large-scale solo exhibition in recent years, according to NTMoFA.

At the entrance of the exhibition, a collaboration between the artist and the Dutch museum, the Rijksmuseum, is displayed alongside 12 classical pieces from the museum's collections. His works reflect potential problems and concerns that exist in humanity and contemporary society.

Born in 1959 in Hilversum, the Amsterdam-based artist could not make it to the opening of his solo show in central Taiwan, Taichung, due to health issues. He explained in a video that the title of the exhibition is well-chosen because, in all his works, there are little cracks in the idealized world he depicts.

Erwin Olaf appears at the opening event in a prerecorded video on Aug. 12. (NTMoFA photo)

The retrospective solo show of Olaf. (NTMoFA photo)

He expects that his works will enable the audience to think about their own situations, dreams, and emotions. “I don’t mind. I want you to be very critical of my work. You do not have to think that everything is beautiful or fantastic,” declared Olaf.

Olaf expressed that he is very touched to host a show in Taiwan for two reasons — the country has been growing into a strong democratic power in Asia and is the first country in Asia to allow same-sex marriage. “As a gay man, it makes me happy that same-sex marriage may be possible in the whole world one day,” Olaf said and then praised Taiwan's LGBTQIA+ movement for its optimism.

Throughout his 40-year career, Olaf has been well-known for his gay rights activism after he began documenting pre-AIDS gay liberation in Amsterdam’s nightlife in the 1980s. He served as the official portrait artist for the Dutch royal family in 2017 and designed one side of the euro coin for King Willem-Alexander in 2013.

The exhibition is set to run in “room 101” for three months, from Aug. 13 to Nov. 27. For more information, visit the website.

(NTMoFA photo)

Olaf's photography. (NTMoFA photo)

(NTMoFA photo)

(NTMoFA photo)

Poster (NTMoFA photo)