You’re all moved in, you’ve bought your books, you’ve received your syllabi; all that’s left to do is fill up that brand new day planner with some cool events. Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered with everything from football to the theater, plus some workshops, game nights and other fun stuff mixed in to keep it interesting. 

Temple’s event calendar has a complete list of events, but here are a few highlights for September. 

Every Friday: A net to remember 
Campus Rec offers Net Nights, a dedicated space for activities that include volleyball, badminton and table tennis. No registration required! 

When: Fridays, 7–10 p.m. 
Where: 3rd floor rec courts in Pearson and McGonigle Halls. 

Every Monday: Explore ancient relics 
Ok, maybe not ancient. But you can actually explore the collection of rare books, manuscripts, zines and artists’ books from Temple’s Special Collections Research Center at the Charles Library during the weekly Look at a Book event. Each week via Zoom, our book wizards (members from Tyler’s Art History Department) will open a different artifact from the collection, flip through its pages and share the magic within. 

When: Mondays, 1:30–1:55 p.m. 
Where: Virtual 

Fight, fight, fight! 
Football games are one of the most iconic college student experiences there is. Not a football fan? Check out one of our other incredible fall teams: See some sweet spikes at a volleyball game, learn a soccer chant or see what field hockey is all about. Plus, students can attend any (or ALL) of these events for free! 

When: Dates vary 
Where: Various locations 

Who are Eleanor and Dolly? 
Find out during the first Temple Theaters production of the semester! Tickets for Eleanor and Dolly are available online or through the box office at Tomlinson Theater. Plus, be sure to check out the theater schedule for the rest of the season! 

When: Dates vary 
Where: Tomlinson Theater 

Paint and sip? More like socialize and chill 
Come one, come all! The Department of Africology and African American Studies is holding a Paint and Sip event to welcome new and returning students, as well as honor the Stephen Couvillon Scholarship winners. 

When: Friday, Sept. 8, 4–6 p.m. 
Where: 812 Gladfelter Hall 

Shop til you drop 
Take advantage of this sustainable on-campus thrifting event! Held multiple times each semester, Temple’s Office of Sustainability hosts a used clothes shopping event on campus, with all items under $10. Items are donated by students, and all proceeds benefit the Cherry Pantry. 

When: Wednesday, Sept. 27, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. 
Where: Bell Tower 

Make time for self-care 
Get in touch with your inner zen during the Self-Care Fair, hosted by the Wellness Resource Center. This event is a great way to take a break from the daily hustle and bustle, and it’s designed to help you reconnect with what matters most: YOU! 

When: Wednesday, Sept. 27, noon–2 p.m. 
Where: HGSC 200 and 200D 

Coming up: Homecoming and Family Weekend! 
This American tradition is right around the corner. No matter how far our Owls fly, they can always come back home! Come on out for events that culminate in our biggest tailgate of the year and the Homecoming football game: Temple Owls vs. the UTSA Roadrunners. There’s SO much you won’t want to miss; the Tyler Art Market, ghost tours and sightseeing buses for families, the Boyer Mosaic Concert, and tons of other events throughout the week. 

When: Oct. 2–8 
Where: All over Philadelphia! 

As if made of porcelain or glass, the monumental, serene faces of Arthur Maslard’s subjects fragment into sharply contrasted leaves. The French artist, also known as Ratur, draws on a background in graphic design and intimacy with nature to blend realistic features with fantastical, botanical explosions and abstract fields of color. “Every wall is challenging and different!” he says. “There is always a part of improvisation and adaptation. I would say that the most constraining factor is time.”

Maslard counts Hungarian painter István Sándorfi among his influences, honing the detailed interaction of light with flesh and folds of fabric. He often works alongside his brother Oscar, known as SCKARO, to realize hyperrealistic imagery portraying what Ratur describes as “humans faced with a nature in ruin, mythical figures, and symbols of perpetual rebirth.”

Ratur’s next project takes him to Sand City, California, for the West End Mural Festival in October. Explore more work on his website, and follow updates on Instagram.

Untitled (2023), Annemasse, France

“Renaissance” (2020), Rouen Impressionnée Festival, Rouen, France

“Summer Vibe” (2023), North West Walls Festival, Belgium

“Innate Connection” (2021), Vancouver, B.C., Canada

“Sweet Life” (2023), Great Falls, Montana, U.S.A.

“Daphné” (2020), Dijon, France

“Above It All” (2022), Vancouver, B.C., Canada

“Together” (2021), Paris, France

“L’Oranger” (2021), Saint Brieuc, France

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 Hyperrealistic Portraits Burst Into Botanical Shards in Vibrant Murals by Ratur appeared first on Colossal.

The Other Art Fair, presented by Saatchi Art, has been nurturing its artist-led event for 70 global editions, serving visitors with surreal experiences and accessible art. The upcoming Los Angeles fair at the Barker Hangar from September 21 to 24 marks ten editions in the city, so celebrations are mandatory. Tickets are available now.

The Other Art Fair’s adoration of L.A. is rooted in the people. The passion locals have to discover art in new ways is unmatched, and this edition hopes to prove no exception. Here are ten reasons why you need a ticket…

10. You can have your photograph taken by a Grey’s Anatomy actor-turned-artist. It’s time to unleash your inner animal as the fair welcomes photographer Charles Michael Davis as its Guest Artist. Each solo photo session will result in one unmasked and one animal-masked action shot—directed and shot by Charles himself.

9. Get a personalized haiku written just for you based on any word or phrase you offer the in-house poet. It’s written art, curated by you!

8. Discover the wonder of light and color in a cosmic light bath installation—a truly “you had to be there” experience.

7. Let fate decide in a mystical fortune-telling experience doused in neon for good measure (and for posting, of course).

6. Peruse art after your drinks are poured. The bar inside the fair offers a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to enjoy while you browse. 

5. Become the artist by making your very own risograph print at the Print Shop LA workshop space.

4. Kick off the weekend with the feel-good vibes of dublab’s vinyl-only DJs.

3. Become the artist again. Delight in the joys of analog with a Polaroid embroidery workshop. 

2. Embrace the rebel spirit with a new exhibition, Acts of Liberation, guest curated by Taylor Bythwood-Porter.

1. Now to the core of what makes The Other Art Fair, well, other. Unlike the usual gallery-led fairs, this event allows you to meet 140 up-and-coming artists. Artists who work with paint, clay, and even pillows (yes, that’s right) will be selling original work from $100. Your home is about to get a lot more interesting.

To learn more and get tickets, visit theotherartfair.com.

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 The Other Art Fair Returns to Los Angeles for Its 10th Edition appeared first on Colossal.

After more than one year of hinting, Pace will open a gallery in Tokyo in spring 2024. This will be the mega gallery’s eighth location across six countries, joining spaces in London, Geneva, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, Palm Beach and Los Angeles.

The 5,500 sq. ft Tokyo gallery will be housed in the lower three floors of a building designed by the British architect Thomas Heatherwick in the new Azabudai Hills development in central Tokyo. This eight-hectare mixed-used urban park is being built by Mori Building, the property developer that owns the Mori Art Museum, one of Japan’s leading private art institutions. The Azabudai development will open in November and cost around $4.4bn.

“It will be a glass pavilion popping through a lawn,” says Marc Glimcher, Pace’s chief executive, of the forthcoming Tokyo gallery. “Heatherwick has designed a huge green sloping expanse that serves as the roof of the building in which our gallery is housed.” A number of cafés, bookstores and the Mori Museum’s Azubadai gallery will also be located in the new development, Glimcher says, while the Borderless experiential art centre of TeamLab, a Japanese artist collective on Pace’s roster, is also nearby. Pace was invited by Mori Building to become one of the last tenants to take an available space in the development.

Pace’s opening is the latest vote of confidence in the Japanese art market, which this July saw the first edition Tokyo Gendai, the country’s first major international art fair. Around a month before the fair opened, it was announced that the ministry of trade would grant non-Japanese galleries at the fair “bonded status”, allowing them to circumvent certain onerous import tax laws that have long discouraged foreign dealers from doing business in the country. Thus far, only a small handful of Western galleries have opened up Tokyo galleries, such as Perrotin and Blum & Poe.

“Tokyo is at an inflection point,” Glimcher says. “It’s only time before others open up here too. They just have to wake up.” The American dealer says that tax laws for overseas galleries in Japan are “moving well in the same direction” as Tokyo Gendai, and that he expects to soon be able to operate in the same way as he can at the fair.

But it was especially the success of Pace Seoul, which opened in 2017, that led Glimcher to move ahead with a space in Tokyo. Seoul has “charted a new path for an East Asian city to become incredibly connected to the international art world in a short amount of time”, he says. “It is true that Japan is still relatively isolated to the global market. But I heard this when I announced plans to open in Seoul—that it’s a ‘closed system’ which I’d never be able to break in to. And look now. I think Korea has prodded Japan into action.”

Japanese collectors’ and consumers’ interest in luxury goods and fine art has led to a wealth of partnerships between artists and fashion brands—a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common in the West, albeit to dubious critical reception. Asked whether Pace Tokyo’s opening will see the gallery explore more luxury partnerships, Glimcher says: “There are things that culturally feel okay in Japan that don’t feel so good elsewhere. But we are definitely going to be looking at things that we haven’t in the past, and play catch up too.”

Pace currently represents three Japanese artists or artists groups: TeamLab, Yoshitomo Nara and Kohei Nawa. It also counts on its roster Lee Ufan, who is South Korean but spent a significant amount of time in Japan. The opening show for the Tokyo gallery has not been announced; its director has yet to be selected.

Visitors view a painting at the exhibition held at China Institute Gallery in New York, the United States, on May 4, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

Art is an essential tool to build bridges between cultures and people while China is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the auction landscape, said Simon de Pury, a Swiss auctioneer.

by Martina Fuchs

LONDON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Art is an essential tool to build bridges between cultures and people while China is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the auction landscape, said Swiss auctioneer, art dealer and curator Simon de Pury.

“I believe that at a time when there is great polarization in the world, art is more important than ever because it is so hard to get to know other cultures and other people that we are less familiar with,” said de Pury, a leading figure in the art world, also known as the “Mick Jagger of auctions,” who is famous for his legendary performance on the auction podium.

“Art builds bridges and is absolutely essential to get a better understanding of people from all over the world. Art has a very, very important role to play now more than ever,” he said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua in London.

The 71-year-old art veteran was born in Basel, Switzerland, to an attorney and pharmaceutical executive father and a mother who was an expert in Ikebana, the centuries-old Japanese art of arranging flowers.

De Pury started his career in the world of art with the auction house Sotheby’s and then Phillips, before he founded his own contemporary culture company. It is estimated that he has raised several billion U.S. dollars for a number of charities and cultural institutions over the course of his career.

Asked about the impact of COVID-19 on the contemporary art world and auction sales, de Pury commented: “The pandemic has shown that the art market could function very, very well thanks to technology and now it has really caught up with technology and has made big strides forward.”

Art enthusiasts discuss a painting by Chinese artist Yue Minjun at preview exhibitions of art works to be auctioned by British auction house Sotheby’s in Beijing, China. (EPA via XINHUA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW)

CHINA’S AUCTION SPOT

According to a report published by the Statista Research Department in July, the combined auction sales of Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips worldwide declined by roughly 18 percent year-on-year to around 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2023.

De Pury said the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong will remain “hugely important” for the global art market. “First of all, Hong Kong is with New York the most important auction place anywhere in the world. This is an absolutely key place for top-end auctions.”

“Then you have every year Art Basel Hong Kong, which is one of the most important art fairs in the world, and a must for anybody interested in following art. Then, the depth of collectors in China’s mainland is huge,” he noted.

He continued: “All the auctions that have taken place, regardless of whether they took place in New York or in Europe, the Chinese participation has been substantial. In some auctions, it has been up to 40 percent of the buying or bidding that came from Asia.”

Visitors look at exhibits during Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in south China’s Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Li Peng)

FOR A GOOD CAUSE

De Pury also stressed that he will continue his primary market live auction series, a business model aiming to ensure that artists and their representing galleries receive the proceeds directly from the sales.

The auctions also designate a fixed percentage of the hammer price to be donated to a public or not-for-profit cultural institution or charity.

“The proceeds go directly to the artists and to the galleries that represent them. It’s great to give galleries and artists access to the auction world as well.”

“It’s an avatar of myself who conducts these auctions which makes it more fun, because usually when you have an online auction, you just see the fingers going up. But if you see a little caricature of an auctioneer conducting it, it makes it more lively.”■

“You are my voice in English,” Gabriel García Márquez told her. She insisted that her name appear on the covers of books she translated, including with that of Cervantes.