Adeline Ooi will be stepping down from her role as Art Basel’s Asia director at the end of November after leading the Swiss mega fair’s development and operation for a decade.
The departure, announced internally on Thursday, October 5, is a conclusion of a major chapter of Asia’s art world story that saw the region’s rise to become an integral part of the global art market with Hong Kong, home to Art Basel’s fair in Asia, at the center. Ooi said she will be focusing on personal matters following her departure. Her role will not immediately be replaced as Art Basel continues to undergo a structural reorganization.
“It has been a magical ride,” Ooi said via telephone from her home in Malaysia. “It was something very special that we did together in Hong Kong, from establishing a proper art platform in Asia and trying to tell the world that we are not second best to bringing together that very special Asian energy. It was truly amazing.”
Looking back at the past decade since she took on the role in 2014 after serving as Art Basel’s VIP representative for Southeast Asia, she said it has been a special journey professionally and on a personal level. Ooi spearheaded the launch of Art Basel’s new initiatives in Asia, such as the collaboration with Art Week Tokyo and S.E.A. Focus in Singapore over the past two years.
“Adeline has delivered a tremendous amount to the Art Basel organization and to our clients in the Asian context and also at a global level. We’re really saddened to see her leaving,” said Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel. Horowitz worked with Ooi when he was the fair’s director of Americas from 2015 to 2021; he returned to Art Basel as the fair’s CEO in November last year.
A visitor poses for a photo at the entrance of the Art Basel Hong Kong. Photo by Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.
Ooi was appointed to Asia director as Art Basel’s parent company MCH Group took full ownership of the Hong Kong fair in 2014, following the initial acquisition of a 60 percent stake in Asian Art Fairs, which launched ART HK in 2008. The company rebranded the Hong Kong fair as Art Basel in Hong Kong in 2013.
Since then, Art Basel Hong Kong became a destination event in Asia as a platform to introduce western galleries to the region’s collectors, and shining a spotlight on artistic talents and galleries from across the region, while drawing international VIPs. The fair expanded to hosting 242 exhibitors in 2019 until Covid hit in 2020, forcing organizers to cancel fair events around the world that year. Art Basel Hong Kong resumed in 2021 and 2022 but in much scaled-down editions with a local focus, until March this year when the city fully reopened to world travelers.
Richard Koh Fine Art at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Art Basel has been going through a structural change following media scion James Murdoch’s acquisition of a 38 percent stake in MCH Group in 2020, pledging for $80 million investment. While bringing back Horowitz to Art Basel as successor to former global director Marc Spiegler, who was at the helm for over a decade until end of last year, Art Basel also appointed the newly created fair director positions to lead each of its four fairs: Angelle Siyang-Le as director of the Hong Kong fair; Bridget Finn to lead Art Basel Miami Beach; Maike Cruse to direct the flagship fair in Switzerland; and Clément Delépine to head Paris+ by Art Basel, the latest addition to the Art Basel fair enterprise. They were all installed following last year’s appointment of Vincenzo de Bellis as director of fairs and exhibition platforms.
Horowitz assured that the new organizational structure will strengthen Art Basel’s operation globally, and the fair remains committed to Asia despite Ooi’s departure.
“We recognize that the Asian market is not a single umbrella market. There are very distinct regional markets. Our team will continue to look at where we can make an impact, where we can continue to build relationships, and build and help to service local, artistically collecting communities,” Horowitz noted.
Art Week Tokyo will return from November 2 to 5. Art Basel Hong Kong, led by Siyang-Le and Gil Schorr, Art Basel’s Hong Kong general manager, will return from March 26 through 30, 2024, with the first two days as VIP days.
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Minturn-based Weston Snowboards has launched several new lines this season featuring designs from Crystal Worl, who specializes in the formline art of the Alaska native Tlingit people.
The collaboration is part of a larger effort between Worl, Weston and others to raise awareness for the urgent situation in Alaska involving salmon harvesting.
Worl, who is herself Tlingit, said on Weston’s new Skyline-model skis and Backwoods- and Eclipse-model snowboards, she drew from her people’s artistic style in an effort to be communicative with the project.
“There’s a whole set of principles and way of creating the art, it’s very complex and something that’s passed on from mentor to apprentice,” she said. “Growing up, we didn’t call it art. It’s on our regalia, it’s on our houses, it’s a way of communication, it’s our literature.
“This formline design is used so that when I’m wearing my regalia, someone will look at my regalia and see my clan crest on there, and they’ll be able to tell who I am, where I’m from, and their relationship to me and my family,” Worl added. “It’s a whole book of information just from one design.”
Worl said the salmon depicted on her Weston boards represents “Xáat Kusteeyí,” a Tlingit term for “The Salmon Way of Life,” which focuses on protecting salmon and salmon habitat so the salmon can provide people with sustenance in return.
Worl grew up attending something she calls “fish camp,” where kids learn to filet and smoke fish.
But in recent years, fish camp has been canceled, she said.
“We’ve been going to fish camp and harvesting fish in the Kuskokwim River forever, something my grandfather passed on to his kids and on to me and my family,” she said. “But the past three years we haven’t been allowed to, because the number of salmon is too low.”
It’s a crisis for the native people of Alaska who live by Xáat Kusteeyí.
“It’s urgent,” Worl said. “It affects our small communities in Alaska, but it does ultimately affect everyone … the way the world is collecting salmon is not sustainable. We won’t have salmon in the future.”
Worl said she thinks about the situation every day, and it has altered the way she thinks about her art. Using the communicative formline style of her people, she now seeks to spread a message communicating the urgency of the salmon harvesting situation in Alaska.
“Part of creating an art piece that commemorates salmon is also telling people the importance of salmon and also the importance of learning to harvest them respectfully in a way that’s not wasteful,” she said.
Worl has attended art school and taken on extensive studies including a three-year apprenticeship with Haida artist Robert Davidson, a master of the craft. But her first and most influential mentor was her brother, Rico Worl.
Rico carved out the recognition and respect of a corner of Alaskan skateboard culture with his signature style, eventually requesting the assistance of Crystal.
“My older brother was hand-painting skateboard decks and selling them online, and he was doing so well that it was hard to keep up with orders,” she said. “He started sending me blank decks, and I started hand painting them.”
The siblings formed Trickster Company, and while Crystal’s art continued to be featured on skateboards, she had yet to appear on a snowboard before the Weston collaboration.
Trickster Company, along with Weston, Zeal Optics, Smartwool, Pret, and MountainFLOW Eco-Wax, have now joined forces to form the Haa Aani Alliance. Has Aani is a Tlingit word meaning “our land.”
In addition to the Weston skis and snowboards, the Haa Aani Alliance will launch a collection of goggles, socks and accessories featuring Worl’s artwork, with a portion of proceeds benefiting nonprofits Yukon Salmon, Wild Salmon Center and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.
Worl is a skier and enjoys the sport and its connection to Alaska. She also wants to make it clear that by putting her art on its products, these companies are supporting indigenous art, not appropriating it.
“I’m a small business owner, and like any other modern-day business, we want buyers and collectors to feel really excited about repping our gear, whether it be something they buy from the Trickster website, or they buy this snowboard or skis,” she said. “I want everyone to wear it and rock it, and I want people to be stoked about the art, and the story, and share the story, share the values that come with it, learn from it, and shred on the mountain with these boards and be excited to tell other people about it.”
Chicago in the late 1970s and 1980s overflowed with a cadre of smart, keen-eyed photojournalists who would go on to win national acclaim, taking unforgettable pictures from their hometown and hot spots around the world.
They worked for the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and other newspapers, competing fiercely for the best images before adjourning for liquid therapy at the Billy Goat Tavern, a storied journalism watering hole.
More than holding her own in this remarkable company was a young photographer named Anne Cusack Derk. She was something of a unicorn — frequently the lone woman in the bullish fraternity of Chicago news shooters.
Known for both her vivid picture-making and her abundant heart, Cusack became the first woman honored as Photographer of the Year by both the Illinois Press Photographers Assn. and, twice, by the association of news photographers in Chicago.
Cusack later took her intimate storytelling to The Times. In a career that spanned five decades, she won renown for photos that captured the anguish of Vietnamese boat people on the South China Sea, the grit of a “girl boxer” from L.A.’s Eastside and the ferocity of a backboard-shattering dunk by a high school basketball player.
Anne Cusack’s 1993 image of Leon Watson’s “slam dunk,” a move that shattered the backboard in a game between the Crenshaw Cougars and the Faith Baptists.
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Cusack, who retired from The Times in 2015, died Monday, with her two daughters at her side, at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. She was 72 and had struggled with interstitial lung disease since 2019.
Her colleagues remembered her as a trailblazer, a woman who made award-winning images while raising three children with her husband, Richard Derk, a former photo editor at The Times.
“She met the world with an open, loving, unguarded heart,” a dear friend, Nancy Drew, wrote in tribute to Cusack. “It was the key to her art. As a news photographer she walked into situations both grim and delightful, and came back with award-winning images.”
Like many news photographers, Cusack was called on to shoot an array of images, from news conferences to murder scenes. Her skills came into highest resolution on projects, including her nearly two-month foray to Southeast Asia to catalog the suffering of Vietnamese refugees. At one point, she jumped into a dugout canoe, the only vehicle that could get her to a remote island where many people were stranded. In a relentless rain, she held an umbrella in one hand and a bucket in the other. Years later, Cusack would laugh while recalling her guide, who repeatedly admonished: “Keep bailing! Keep bailing!”
While she captured wrenching images during that assignment for the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper had not yet fully embraced photo essays and initially published only a handful of her pictures. So Cusack set to work with her husband to design a five-page layout of the photos. The presentation was so compelling that the Tribune ran all five pages.
“One thing that came out of it was a kind of awakening at the paper of the power of photojournalism,” Derk recalled.
An undated photo of Anne Cusack on assignment.
(Derk family)
Some of his wife’s most compelling work for The Times came when she collaborated with Kurt Streeter, a gifted writer who is now a national correspondent for the New York Times.
The duo first worked together on a series about a slight young girl from L.A.’s Eastside who yearned to become a boxer. “The Girl” recounted the journey of Seniesa Estrada and her father, Joe, delving deeply into issues of race and identity.
Cusack’s photos captured the girl and her sport in all its savagery and tenderness. One gripping image showed Seniesa, her eyes gleaming with desire, reflected in the glass pane over a poster of Muhammad Ali.
Cusack and Streeter would team on three other projects that delivered harpoons to the heart. One followed identical twin boys struggling with heart disease. Two other projects centered on young women with traumatic medical conditions: one an Iraqi disfigured by a war-time bomb, the other an American who suffered a horrendous brain injury in a car accident.
“She was so much more than a photographer,” Streeter said this week. “She was a reporter right there with me, with a special ability to make people feel at ease. It was like having a mother’s wisdom and care and strength at my side. That always helped so much in these highly emotional situations.”
Not surprisingly, Cusack’s caring persona took full force in her home life.
Her three grown children remembered her as the mother who guided and inspired by example: driving home from work, she told one daughter to stay in the car as she donned fire gear and jumped out to shoot a brush fire; helping prepare her kids for “Crazy Hair Day” in school, her creativity conjuring up just the right hairdos; and consoling her teenage son, jilted by a girlfriend, by lying on his bed and finding the right words.
“Anne trailblazed that path for so many women, and beautifully captured the essence of people and what it meant to be human,” said daughter Gwendolyn Derk, a physician who lives near Portland, Ore.
A photo of Anne Cusack and her husband, Richard Derk, in New York City, circa 1980. The couple were married 50 years.
(Richard Derk)
Anne Cusack was born in Chicago in 1951 and grew up in the northern suburb of Glenview. She attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she fell in love with another Daily Illini photographer, Richard Derk.
“Annie,” as friends called her, would become the first woman photo chief at the college paper. She graduated in 1973 with a degree in social work.
Cusack worked at small papers, mostly in suburban Chicago, before landing in the big time: the Chicago Tribune, where she was a photographer from 1978 to 1990. Among the luminaries shooting pictures in Chicago in those days were John White, a Pulitzer Prize winner for the Sun-Times, and Pete Souza, later chief White House photographer for President Obama.
Perry Riddle, another member of the Chicago cohort, landed a job as a photo editor at The Times, and in the 1980s he brought other members of the group to the paper, including Al Seib and Rosemary Kaul. The Times offered jobs to both Derk and Cusack, who moved to Thousand Oaks.
Richard Derk said the humanity that so many colleagues and subjects admired in his wife was not a “tactic.”
“On a story, she would just become part of someone’s circle, become part of someone’s family,” Derk said. “It wasn’t a journalist working their way in there. She was very much a student of the human condition.”
After leaving The Times, Cusack put her creative energies into new passions, particularly sculpture. Diagnosed with lung illness in 2019, it became harder for her to remain active. But she was thrilled that she got to attend the wedding of her younger daughter, Maggie, in October of last year.
The family plans a showing of Cusack’s work in Thousand Oaks and a burial in Glenview, Ill. She is survived by her husband, two daughters and son, George, and two grandchildren, Miles Tucker Derk and Paul Richard Derk.
This week, the Derk children remembered their mother as someone who urged a certain wonder about the world.
Maggie, a transportation planner who lives in the greater Portland area, recalled a night in their childhood when her mother woke the two Derk girls in the dead of night. Though it was past 2 a.m., she lay them down on a blanket on the lawn to watch a meteor shower.
To this day, the sisters recall one particularly giant celestial object. The meteoroid appeared so enormous they are sure they heard it roaring across the heavens.
“We just had a blast, laying out there in the dark together,” Maggie Derk said. “When I see a shooting star now, I will think of her.”
“Extinguish.” All images courtesy of Corey Helford Gallery, shared with permission
Magical, surreal companionship characterizes Lisa Ericson’s hyperrealistic paintings in acrylic, which depict unusual pairs of species in easy coexistence. The Portland-based artist (previously) is known for illuminating flora and fauna and emphasizing the impending impacts of the climate crisis, particularly rising sea levels that in many of her latest works, encroach on her subjects’ environments. She shares about her chiaroscuro-style works:
I use the black background to create the drama of the spotlight on my chosen subject. It singles them out, exposes their every tiny detail, and creates a void of the unknown around them. In that way, each piece becomes an intimate portrait. I think of the animals in my paintings as simultaneously representing the natural world and also reflecting our own human struggle and emotion. I like to draw parallels between the two.
On view this month at Corey Helford Gallery, Ericson’s solo show Doom & Bloom features six portraits of animals that accentuate the devastating effects of a warming planet. In “Chariot,” a turtle carries an entire ecosystem across the road, while “Edge of Night” portrays a fox trapped on a tree stump blossoming with pink coneflowers. Each painting harnesses the intrigue of vivid color to draw the viewer in while also serving as a poignant reminder of what’s at stake, and the title of the exhibition suggests that gloom isn’t the only option amid such heartbreaking circumstances.
Doom & Bloom is on view in Los Angeles from October 7 to November 11. Head to Instagram to glimpse Ericson’s process and how these paintings came to be.
“Chariot”
“Edge of Night”
Detail of “Edge of Night”
“Mother”
“Fortress”
Detail of “Fortress”
“Territorial”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In ‘Doom & Bloom,’ Lisa Ericson Illuminates the Surreal Impacts of Rising Sea Levels appeared first on Colossal.
When 6-9 p.m. Oct. 6 • Where From Lemp’s Grand Hall (1817 Cherokee Street) to the Lemp Mansion (3322 Demenil Place) • How much $90 • More info stlouisbourbonfestival.com
Yeah, it costs 90 bucks, but there will be more than 500 types of bourbon, rye, Scotch and other varieties of whiskey to sample as part of the St. Louis Bourbon Festival. There also will be music, food trucks and street performers. Plus cigars. Of all the St. Louis festivals, this may be the only one with cigars. By Daniel Neman
When 8 p.m. Oct. 6 • Where J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts at Lindenwood University, 2300 West Clay Street, St. Charles • How much $35-$75 • More info lindenwood.edu
The Spinners aren’t as widely regarded as some of the other fine R&B groups of the 1960s and ’70s, such as the Temptations and the Four Tops, but the band’s music was just as vital. After recording for Motown, the band went on to become one of the signature acts representing the lush Philadelphia soul sound. Hits include “The Rubberband Man,” “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” “Then Came You,” “Mighty Love” and “Love Don’t Love Nobody.” The group released “Round the Block and Back Again” in 2021. By Kevin C. Johnson
When 6 p.m. Oct. 6 • Where Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue • How much Free • More info left-bank.com
Thriller writer Lori Rader-Day presents her new novel, “The Death of Us,” in which a car found in a pond appears linked to a long-ago disappearance. What happened to a woman who handed over a baby to another woman who then raised the boy as her own? Rader-Day is the author of books such as “Death at Greenway” and “The Lucky One.” By Jane Henderson
When 7 p.m. Oct. 6 • Where Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Road • How much Free • More info slcl.org
Two acclaimed poets, both St. Louis natives, talk about looking at nature and wildness throught their art. Naomi Shihab Nye and James Crews will be in conversation with moderator and local poet Travis Mossotti. By Jane Henderson
When 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6 • Where Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard • How much $55-$150 • More info metrotix.com
It will be a night of hits when the Temptations and the Four Tops team up, just like in their heyday. Both groups are Motown royalty and Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. The Temptations gave the world classics such as “Just My Imagination,” “My Girl,” “I Can’t Get Next to You” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” while the Four Tops’ hits include “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “Bernadette,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” and “When She Was My Girl.” By Kevin C. Johnson
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The St. Louis Ballet production of “Giselle”
When 7 p.m. Oct. 6-7, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 Touhill Circle • How much $36-$84 • More info 534-1111; stlouisballet.org
A collaboration between St. Louis Ballet and Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, “Giselle” features romance, deception, betrayal, heartbreak, madness and death. Sound like a good time? It should, if classic ballet is your thing. The wildly emotional piece is considered a 19th-century masterwork. The music is by Adolphe Adam and the choreography and production conceived by Gen Horiuchi. By Daniel Durchholz
When Noon-8 p.m. Oct. 6, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 7-8 • Where Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard • How much $16 for adults, $8 for children and members, free for member children under 13 and all children 3 and under • More info mobot.org
Missouri-made items — and only Missouri-made items — are the focus of this popular annual event. All the usual temptations will be at the Best of Missouri Market: arts, crafts, and food and beverage products. There is certain to be something you don’t need, but you’ve just got to have anyway. By Daniel Neman
When 3 and 7 p.m. Oct. 7 • Where Manchester United Methodist Church, 129, Woods Mill Road • How much $5-$15 • More info 314-993-9626
St. Louis Children’s Choirs, which feature more than 300 singers age 6 to 18, from across the metro area, hold their concerts for family and friends. The groups Music Makers, Children’s Choir, Concert Choir and Cantus perform at 3 p.m., while the concert featuring Chorale, Choirsters, Concert Choir and Cantus is held at 7 p.m. By Daniel Durchholz
When 7 p.m. Oct. 7 • Where Salem United Methodist Church, 1200 South Lindbergh Boulevard • How much Free • More info acchorale.com
The American Chamber Chorale, an auditioned ensemble of experienced singers from diverse backgrounds, presents the first concert of its 2023-24 season. The group’s varied repertoire consists of music both old and new. By Daniel Durchholz
When 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 • Where The Chapel Venue, 6238 Alexander Drive • How much $20, $5 for students • More info 314-401-0450; chamberprojectstl.org
Harp, flute, clarinet and stringed instruments are featured in Chamber Project St. Louis’ program “Classified: Sound Secrets.” Works featured include Ravel’s “Sonatine for flute, viola, harp,” Rebecca Clark’s “Lullaby and Grotesque for viola and cello,” and pieces by Mason Bates, Carlos Simon and Elizabeth Poston. By Daniel Durchholz
When 8 p.m. Oct. 7 • Where The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard • How much $35-$40 More info ticketmaster.com
The Tallest Man on Earth’s Kristian Matsson returns to the Pageant with “Henry St.,” his first album in four years, featuring “Every Little Heart.” He calls “Henry St.” “the most playful, most me album yet, because it covers so many of the different noises in my head. When you overthink things, you get further away from your original ideas.” By Kevin C. Johnson
When 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 7, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where 4100 and 4200 blocks of Flora Place • How much $10 • More info shawartfair.org
Here is your chance to peruse some great local (and nonlocal) art, while saying to yourself, “I wish I were cool enough to live in one of these houses on Flora Place.” Along with more than 120 artists showing their stuff, there will be food trucks and music. Save $2 on admission by purchasing tickets at shawartfair.org. By Daniel Neman
Lucinda Williams performs April 15, 2022, at the Pageant.
When 8 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard • How much Sold out • More info metrotix.com
Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams follows a 2022 concert at the Pageant with a new show featuring her new album, “Stories From a Rock ’n’ Roll Heart.” It’s her first album since surviving a stroke in 2020 and is accompanied by a video, in which she stars for the first time in more than three decades. By Kevin C. Johnson
When 7 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where • City Winery, City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way • How much $25-$30 • More info citywinery.com/stlouis
LaToya Sharen, born and raised in Belleville, brings some shine to City Winery. On “Shine,” her latest album, she’s putting the pieces of her life back together after her marriage crumbled and her faith dwindled. The album is produced by Jo “Capo” Kent and includes R&B, Afrobeats and trap music. By Kevin C. Johnson
When 7 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where Community Music School, 535 Garden Avenue, Webster Groves • How much $10-$15 • More info onthestage.tickets/webster-university-department-of-music
Contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound performs composer Donnacha Dennehy’s evening-length “Land of Winter” — a work that doubles as an evocation of the changing light of the shifting seasons in Ireland and a chance for introspection regarding our journey through life. By Daniel Durchholz
When 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where Florissant Old Town Marketplace, Florissant • How much Free • More info florissantoldtown.com
The longstanding Florissant Fall Festival will have a dog show and pony rides — it’s a dog-and-pony show! — plus pumpkin decorating, a car show, and all the live music, food and vendors you could want. By Daniel Neman
When 12:30-5 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where Berra Park, Mackland Avenue between Shaw and Daggett avenues • How much Free • More info hillstl.org
This is the Hill’s Italian festival, so you know it’s vero. The festivities begin with a parade starting at Shaw School and then head to Berra Park for a lot of genuine Italian food, some St. Louis-Italian food (toasted ravioli), music, Italian vendors and maybe a game of bocce or two. By Daniel Neman
When 3 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where St. Clare Catholic Church, 1411 Cross Street, O’Fallon, Illinois • How much $10-$20 • More info singmasterworks.org
Masterworks Chorale opens its 50th anniversary jubilee season with “A Serenade to Music,” a reunion of the group’s alums as well as its founder, A. Dennis Sparger. The concert’s title matches the Ralph Vaughan Williams composition that will be the evening’s featured piece. The performance also includes the world premiere of Masterworks artistic director Stephen Mager’s choral composition based on Psalm 150. By Daniel Durchholz
When 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 • Where The Factory, 17105 North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield • How much $49-$89 • More info ticketmaster.com
Rock band Three Dog Night, known for “Black and White,” “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” and “Joy to the World,” makes its Factory debut this weekend. The current lineup includes Danny Hutton (founder/lead vocalist), Michael Allsup (guitar), Paul Kingery (bass/vocals), Pat Bautz (drums), Howard Laravea (keyboards) and David Morgan (vocals). By Kevin C. Johnson
LOS ANGELES — SZA is one of the biggest names in music — but that doesn’t mean she enjoys being on its biggest stage. The “Kill Bill” performer opened up about her complicated relationship with the Grammy Awards, which despite nominating her in five categories in 2018 had her walking away at night’s end empty-handed. Now, she’s gone on to paint a bleak picture of the music industry’s …
When 7 p.m. Oct. 11 • Where Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue • How much Free • More info left-bank.com
Sports writer Michael MacCambridge talks about how the 1970s transformed sports, as detailed in his book “The Big Time.” Stars such as Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Muhammad Ali, Henry Aaron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jack Nicklaus were among those who redefined the role of athletics in America, the author writes. He’ll be in conversation with Gerald Early of Washington University, who is the editor of books such as “The Culture of Bruising.” By Jane Henderson
When 7 p.m. Oct. 11 • Where Grant’s View library, 9700 Musick Road • How much Free • More info slcl.org
In her book “Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement,” Ethel Morgan Smith discusses how ordinary Americans were instrumental in making changes in their communities. She talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley, formerly of St. Louis, about the lesser-known heroes of the civil rights movement. By Jane Henderson
When 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 • Where City Winery, City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way • How much $35-$65 • More info citywinery.com/stlouis
Singer-songwriter Martin Sexton brings his tour to City Winery in support of his latest EP, “2020 Vision.” The album is produced by John Alagia, who has worked with Lukas Nelson, John Mayer and Dave Matthews. By Kevin C. Johnson
When 7 p.m. Oct. 12 • Where Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, 210 East Monroe Avenue, Kirkwood • How much Free; ticket required • More info thenovelneighbor.com; kirkwoodpubliclibrary.org
Morgan Talty, of the Penobscot Indian Nation, won the Pen/Bingham Prize for “Night of the Living Rez,” his debut story collection. In it, 12 tales look at what it means to be Penobscot in the 21st century. His book was chosen for the One Author/One Kirkwood reading event, and he will talk about the collection. Talty teaches at the University of Maine, Orono. By Jane Henderson
When Oct. 12-29; performance times vary • Where Wool Studio Theater, Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive • How much $27.02 — $58.37 • More info newjewishtheatre.org
New Jewish Theatre presents “The Immigrant,” Mark Harelik’s play based on the true story of a young Russian-Jewish immigrant who begins a new chapter of his life in rural central Texas in 1909. The play is directed by artistic director Rebekah Scallet. By Valerie Schremp Hahn
The coming months are filled with music, theater and dance performances, visual art exhibitions, festivals and more festive experiences.
Experts participate in a discussion session during the 2022 Performing Arts Market in Seoul. (Korea Arts Management Support Center)
The annual Performing Arts Market in Seoul, this year together with Journey to Korean Music, will offer a platform where local performing artists can present their productions to potential overseas buyers.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Arts Council Korea and Korea Arts Management Support Center, the 19th edition of PAMS will take place Oct. 11-14 at various venues including the National Theater of Korea, JCC Art Center and Namsan Gugakdang. This year, PAMS joins forces with Journey to Korea, a market platform for Korean traditional music.
During the four-day run, a total of 10 performance programs across the dance, street theater and music genres, selected through the Seoul Art Market PAMS Choice open call competition, and five performances based on Korean traditional music, selected through Journey to Korean Music’s Journey Choice, will be showcased.
From 2017 to 2021, 59 organizations have been selected for PAMS Choice and presented 65 works at the art fair. Among them, groups like Brush Theater, Elephants Laugh and Ambiguous Dance Company gave 91 performances overseas in 2022. Similarly, Journey to Korean Music’s Journey Choice introduced 92 works last year, resulting in negotiations for 418 international performances.
With sustainability, circulation, cooperation and re-connected as thematic keywords, the joint event has invited international performing arts experts including France’s Festival d’Aurillac Artistic Director Frederic Remy, Spain’s Fira Tarrega Director Natalia Lloreta and Program Director Danni Gee of The Joyce Dance Theater based in New York. Creative Producer Kirsty Harris of London’s Barbican Center, and Director Bob Van Heur of Le Guess Who? Festival of Utrecht, the Netherlands will also join the event.
Sophie Thun and Laurence Sturla, whose works will be shown in the fair’s Focus section, discussed their work and their lives in the Austrian capital.
Emerging artists provide an art fair with some of its most exciting booths. Since 2012, Frieze has showcased new talent through its Focus series, which puts a spotlight on galleries that have been in operation for 12 years or less.
Among the 34 galleries chosen for Focus at this year’s Frieze London (from Thursday through Oct. 15) are a handful from Vienna, which is home to an increasingly dynamic and international contemporary arts scene.
Sophie Thun, 37, has photographically documented her latest solo show, “Leaking Times,” created for a converted sugar refinery in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The German-Polish artist, who is represented by the gallery Sophie Tappeiner, revisits techniques in analogue photography and photograms with at times life-size images exploring the interface of production, performance and exhibition.
Laurence Sturla, 31, will be exhibited in his native England for the first time and unveil his largest-scale work to date. Part of a series that has been seen at Vienna Contemporary, Liste Art Fair Basel and his Vienna gallery, Gianni Manhattan, his over-fired ceramic sculptures at once evoke decaying industrial parts, antique ceramics, organic growth and mechanical precision.
At their studios in Vienna, the artists spoke about their working processes. The following conversations have been edited and condensed.
How will you be developing your artistic practices further for Frieze?
The format of an exhibit as a genre interests me. It does not just involve hanging pictures on the wall, but rather is something that has a given length. It also includes who enters and how people interact. Exhibits always have a performative aspect.
I will be adapting the space in Ljubljana to a fair stand. So it is a rendering of the exhibit format within a booth — a kind of re-cropping or spatial investigation. One can find this in paintings of the past, for example on altars in churches. They were created for concrete dimensions.
I used to paint, and the first thing I would do is build the frame. In photography, it’s exactly the same. The first decision is the size. My work makes visible the darkroom and the space where the image is taken. I also leave in traces of the alignment process.
Does your work challenge contemporary practices in photography?
With a smartphone, the device starts rendering the photo before you take a shot. An analogue photograph is more like an etching or wood carving. It functions through contact like in graphic work. The most important work happens in the dark — not behind the camera but in the process of materialization.
I am also interested in the overlapping of different temporalities. In “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, there are extraterrestrials who don’t have linear time. Rather, everything happens simultaneously: dying, eating. In painting, there is also such a tradition. For example, in Genesis tableaus where the earth is created, the animals and people are banished — all captured in one image.
Has Vienna shaped you as an artist?
I originally studied painting here, with Daniel Richter. Then I discovered a darkroom one floor down at the Semperdepot [of the Academy of Art]. It was always empty. Working with analogue photography was totally out. In contrast with this class full of people — which was of course also very exciting — it was a room where you could close the door.
Some people prefer to work in isolation. Others have a team produce their work for them — which also has a long tradition, if you think of Rubens. I apparently like to work alone in dark rooms.
It is also just a great city to live in. I have a studio provided by the federal government. It is compact so that time is not as scarce as in a larger city. That is worth so much.
How will you be developing your artistic practices further for Frieze?
It was a question of how far I can push things. I used around 250 kilos [551 pounds] of clay for each sculpture. With each firing, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it all survives!
I like to think of them as like post-mortems. There’s a piece that appears like a cutaway on a construction site, or an archaeological discovery, or something surgical.
The moment that it’s taken from the kiln, the clay is porous and absorbs everything from its surroundings. The parts are placed in slurry, which creates a kind of a coating of studio detritus.
They will then be placed in saltwater, which gives them a false weight — because by weighing them, drying them out again and then reweighing, you can determine how old a piece is, like with Roman pottery — so it’s like creating a fake history. There will be a salted tide line. It’s this constant lapping of time.
How does the theme of industrialism come to the fore?
The book “Smallcreep’s Day” by Peter Currell Brown accompanied the work. It’s about a character who quits his job working in a factory and becomes a potter. He develops a romantic sort of lifestyle, but it’s also a strange horror story because of how grim and how visceral the descriptions are. He has worked in a factory all of his life making the same thing over and over again. He goes on a journey through the factory to find out what he’s making and never quite finds out.
The city where I’m from, Swindon, was the home of the railway. There were big factories making trains. And then the industry closed down. It’s now where banks have their call centers.
So my work takes into account this transition, what this means to the places and the people. There are also references to modes of work, their ritualistic aspects and why we maintain them — sort of looking at the ghosts of industrialization.
Has Vienna shaped you as an artist?
Vienna has given me possibilities that I don’t think I would have anywhere else. I can afford to have a studio and somewhat of a life. I don’t think that exists in a lot of places — not England, certainly not Paris.
The city is small, but that means that it’s tight-knit and supportive. You get to know everyone. It’s also changing and growing all the time, which is quite exciting.
