Paintings, pea flowers and ice cream on Yongkang Street

The yellow in Lai Chuan-Chien’s《豌豆之花》gets to me before the flowers do. Green leaves and pink-purple petals loosen into broad strokes; the hanging pea pods hold their shape. Against that yellow and the red tabletop, the glass vase almost disappears. My appetite has already filed the green and yellow under matcha and mango.

Madeleine Gallery’s Yongkang Street: Artists, Places, and Stories puts that painting in a neighbourhood history told through artworks, documents and maps. A century ago, the land outside Taipei’s east gate held fields and water. Schools and Japanese-era teachers’ housing later brought artists here; after the war, painters teaching at National Taiwan Normal University and in private studios extended the connections across nearby streets.

Twelve artists are represented in the exhibition, including Lai, Liao Chi-Chun, Li Shih-Chiao and Lin Yu-Shan. The connection is where artists lived, taught and met. The show maps those connections across the streets outside.

For an easy afternoon, walk from Dongmen MRT to the gallery at 63 Yongkang Street, then turn back along the same street to COWS ROCK at number 51. Give the paintings time before you choose your scoops. If you go with someone, each pick a painting and decide what flavour the other one would order. Even if you guess wrong, at least you planned the date.