Last night I went to the opening of Neil Webb's (AKA Bocman) latest show at Bloc space, Sheffield: The Stars In Us All.

The work is inspired by astronaut Dave Bowman's last words before entering the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddyssey: "My God, it's full of stars". Webb has positioned three black monoliths around the studio, each highly polished and perfectly reflective. The monoliths, the room itself, and a bench in the room all act as loudspeakers, broadcasting a 45-minute sound piece. The only faint light in the gallery is provided by blue neon lights behind each monolilth.

The result is suitably awe-inspiring, frequently meditative and contemplative, and occasionally disturbing. As with previous works by Webb which I'm familiar with, there is a perfect relationship between the auditory and the visual, and every element seems perfectly judged to contribute to the overall experience.

The show is also reviewed in today's Guardian Guide . 

opening Wednesday, October 31st, 7pm
** party with music by Sanya and special guest performances by Filippa, Vita Doll and Barbara Ehwald, 9pm to midnight

PROGRAM: initiative for art+architectural collaborations
Invalidenstrasse 115, 10115 Berlin-Mitte
t. +49 (0)30 39 509318
www.programonline.de

Curated by Sophie Hamacher and Louise Witthöft
Exhibition architecture: Nikolai Kaindl

Exhibiting Artists: Bernadette Corporation (US), Karl Holmqvist (SE), Rafal Jakubowicz (PL), Jannis Jaschke (CH), Elena Kovylina (RU), Rebecca Kressley (US), Malte Lochstedt (DE), Elke Marhöfer (DE) and Andro Wekua (GE).

The works in ÜBERleben take on a series of scenarios in which (retro)active myths of the Gothic are used as exercises of ideological critique. Whether we speak of psychological terror or graphic horror, the Gothic has always functioned in relation to its cultural context, exhuming fears, visualizing anxieties, or dealing with unresolved dilemmas already present in society. With details that reference 13th century Gothic architecture, the exhibition structure places the artworks in and around a series of polygonal chambers that were conceived using a technique of pentagrammatic triangulation.

In this gothic land of zombies, vampires and other monsters where social moods of stagnation, depression, anxiety, emptiness and inactivity are controlled by the boundlessness of consumption, the artworks present a vigorous need for survival. Überleben (survival, over-life) implies a certain in-between state, a state that perhaps lies between life and death while at the same time being 'over life', maybe even outside of it – a controlled 'survival' going out of control.

Please click on the picture or visit www.programonline.de for more information.

exhibition period: October 31 – December 15
opening hours: Tue–Fri 2-7pm, Sat 11am-7pm

…so hard to beat.

Better late than never, here's some photos from the best London art show I've been to in ages, at the Vegas Gallery, Redchurch Street, from their private view on 12th October.

Full set of photos from this event on Dan Shot Me . 

FAD now has its own radio show, "Empty Space". We will be broadcasting on Sheffield Live next Tuesday from 10am until noon (GMT). It will continue every week, either in that slot or at the same time on Friday.

You can listen live at www.sheffieldlive.org - where every show will also be archived as an MP3/podcast - or if you live within a few miles of Sheffield city centre then you can tune your radio to 93.2FM.

The show will cover contemporary visual and audio arts in Sheffield and beyond. We'll have features and interviews on local events and artists, interspersed with eclectic and experiMental music. We'll also be working with artists to create some one-off made-for-radio artworks.

If you're near a computer when the show's on, please visit the Sheffield Live chat room where we'll be hanging out and taking feedback and suggestions. After (or even during) the show, we'll be posting track-listings and other info here on the FAD website.

We're very open to suggestions for features, guests, music, happenings - anything which might work on the airwaves, but which doesn't usually get an airing. If you have any ideas, please email es at fademail dot com.

Please listen and enjoy!

Thursday October 25^th

Seventeen, Ana Prada, 6-9pm, info: www.seventeengallery.com

9 Hillgate Street, Water Mark, Nathan Briner, 6-9pm, for more info: art@moderncontemporary.org

Standpoint, Spearcraft, group show, 6-9pm, info: www.standpointlondon.co.uk

Friday October 26^th

Pumphouse, Dallas Seitz, Hunted (the cannibalism of colonial collectorexia), 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.wandsworth.gov.uk/gallery and also, same night, in conversation with Dallas at 5.30pm, free but needs booking…

Museum 52, Kay Harwood, A Minor Place, 6-8pm, info: www.museum52.com

Cubitt, Tris Vonna-Michell, Tall Tales and Short Stories, 7-9pm, info: www.cubittartists.org.uk

Saturday October 27^th

If you happen to be up in Yorkshire…

Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire, Information as Material, Simon Morris and Nick Thurston one day bookshop of experimental literature, 10-5pm, also poetry readings, more, info: www.informationasmaterial.com

Sunday October 28^th

If you happen to be in Bristol…

Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Better Future, Quad Shaped, Cube Microplex, more info: www.mediaartbath.org.uk

Find out more about Russell www.myspace.com/russell_herron

Wow lotsa of competition for the FAD Private view tonight , White Cube Masons Yard  looks great, Rokeby we really like and T1+2 but just because of the number of Artists I think we have to choose The Future Can Wait: http://www.thefuturecanwait.com/  

Tuesday October 9^th

Timothy Taylor, Enter the Path, Suse Bauer, Andrew Palmer, Edward Wright, 6-8pm, info: www.timothytaylorgallery.com

T1+2 Artspace, Still Life, Still, group show curated by Hugh Mendes, 6-9pm, info: www.t12artspace.com

The Future Can Wait, big group show at Atlantis Gallery, Top Floor, curated by Zavier Ellis and Simon Rumley, 6-9pm, info: www.thefuturecanwait.com

Herald Street, Christina Mackie, this, that and the other, 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.heraldst.com

Lisson, Rodney Graham, Wet on Wet My late early styles, 52 Bell Street, 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.lissongallery.com

Lisson, Allora and Calzadilla, pv and performance, 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.lissongallery.com

Hollybush Gardens, Alexander Gutke, 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.hollybushgardens.co.uk

MummeryandSchnelle, Ori Gersht, Time After Time, 6-8pm, info: www.mummeryschnelle.com

Sartorial, Christopher Davies, 6.30-9pm, info: www.sartorialart.com

Sadie Coles Heddon Street, Christiana Soulou, 6-8pm, info: www.sadiecoles.com

Thursday October 11^th

Frieze Art Fair 11-14 October www.friezeartfair.com

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, 11-14 October, Mary Ward House, www.pulse-art.com

YEAR 07, 11-14 October, County Hall, info: www.year07.co.uk

BRIDGE Art Fair, 11-14 October, Trafalgar Hotel, www.bridgeartfair.com

The Unfair Party, Hoxton, info: www.theunfairparty.co.uk

Nancy Victor, Stephen Harwood, The Doctor Who Project, 6-8pm, info: www.nancyvictor.com

Gallery Yujiro, Takefumi Ichikawa, No Matter, 7-9pm, info: www.galleryyujiro.com

VINEspace, Sean Branagan, Light Forms. 6.30-9pm, info: www.vinespace.net

VINEspace, One Night Stand, Zero Hour by Heartbeat Drawing Sasaki, 12-9pm info: www.vinespace.net

Stephen Friedman, Lucas Samaras, 6-9pm, info: www.stephenfriedman.com

Sadie Coles Balfour Mews, Urs Fischer, 6-8pm, info: www.sadiecoles.com

Friday October 12^th

Zoo Art Fair 12-15 October www.zooartfair.com

Frieze Art Fair 11-14 October www.friezeartfair.com

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, 11-14 October, Mary Ward House, www.pulse-art.com

YEAR 07, 11-14 October, County Hall, info: www.year07.co.uk

BRIDGE Art Fair, 11-14 October, Trafalgar Hotel, www.bridgeartfair.com

NO:ID Gallery, Ficken Sie Dieses Haus, Kristen Lovelock and Christl Mudrack, 7-10pm, www.myspace.com/no_idgallery

Gimpel Fils, Guy Ben-Ner, and downstairs, T Kelly Mason, 6-8pm, info: www.gimpelfils.com

Transition, Blanc Noir, group show, 6-9pm, info; www.transitiongallery.co.uk

Vegas, Teenage Kicks, group show, part of Jemima Brown’s ongoing Family Viewing project (previous edition seen last year at Curatorspace – remember them?), info: www.vegasgallery.co.uk

Max Wigram, Bond Street, Richard Wathen, 6.30-8.30pm, info: www.maxwigram.com

Saturday October 13^th

Zoo Art Fair 12-15 October www.zooartfair.com

Frieze Art Fair 11-14 October www.friezeartfair.com

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, 11-14 October, Mary Ward House, www.pulse-art.com

YEAR 07, 11-14 October, County Hall, info: www.year07.co.uk

BRIDGE Art Fair, 11-14 October, Trafalgar Hotel, www.bridgeartfair.com

Artprojx and White Cube present: Christian Marclay, Up and Out, screening, Prince Charles Cinema, info: www.artprojx.com

Turps Banana, FUNDRAISING AUCTION, 7pm, Fine Arts Society, info: www.turpsbanana.com

Afterall Books Benefit Auction, Arts Club, Dover Street, 7pm, info: www.afterall.org/auction

NO:ID Gallery, Ficken Sie Dieses Haus, Kristen Lovelock and Christl Mudrack, 7-10pm, www.myspace.com/no_idgallery

Sadie Coles South Audley Street, Rudolf Stingel, 6-8pom, info: www.sadiecoles.com

Sunday October 14^th

Zoo Art Fair 12-15 October www.zooartfair.com

Frieze Art Fair 11-14 October www.friezeartfair.com

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, 11-14 October, Mary Ward House, www.pulse-art.com

YEAR 07, 11-14 October, County Hall, info: www.year07.co.uk

BRIDGE Art Fair, 11-14 October, Trafalgar Hotel, www.bridgeartfair.com

Sadie Coles at 53 Central Street, Matthew Barney sculptures and photograph, 4-6pm, info: www.sadiecoles.com

SOLO EXHIBITION: TRAINING DAY OCTOBER 5 - NOVEMBER 3, 2007 OPENING RECEPTION WITH THE ARTIST: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 6 - 9 PM

Galleri Loyal is pleased to present the gallery’s first solo exhibition of New York artist Brian Montuori. This is a double-barrel-filled exhibition: Torsgatan 53 AND 59!

For this exhibition Montuori continues his depiction of animals in hyperbolically perilous scenarios. This current group of large-format paintings hinges around a central theme in which the artist envisages a circus train wreck’s disastrous impact. In full detail, Montuori renders the train breaking suddenly and violently apart, spilling the en-caged circus animal performers into their sudden, mortal freedom. The human element who has provided the vehicle for such an accident to occur, is nowhere to accept responsibility.

Montuori uses the tranquility and beauty of classical landscape painting as a perfect stage to present the tragic scene of disorder and chaos. Painted with a deft variation of styles which he conducts seamlessly, Montuori breaks from tradition, finding new techniques to portray the active motion. Montuori describes the exquisite agony of this explosion of fire and carnage while also maintaining an intangible humor which penetrates the despair.

Born in 1977, Brian Montuori lives and works in New York. Montuori has completed a solo exhibition at Christian Ehrentraut in Berlin, Germany where he presented a wall-sized painting of his representation of Noah’s Ark gone asunder. This piece was recently acquired by Sammlung Essl in Vienna, Austria.

More info: http://www.galleriloyal.com

On Friday I went to the opening of Paul Evans ' show "After Nature" at the Cupola Gallery, Sheffield. I've been following Paul's work for a couple of years. When I first met him, he'd just given up his job as head of a successful Sheffield-based design agency in order to concentrate full-time on his painting. His new focus is paying off: there is some wonderful work in this exhibition, showing an intimate exploration and growing understanding of oils and watercolours. His talent is also attracting attention from further afield: in 1996 the Guardian tipped him as "one to watch out for" and just last week he won the Eyestorm Gallery Award for Painting.

The paintings themselves are inspired by landscapes: both inner and outer. The inner world of cellular biology inspires some delicate organic watercolours, each painting accompanied by a Haiku written by the poet Chris Jones:

Evans' oil paintings, ranging in scale from small studies to large canvases, draw from wild British landscapes, starkly beautiful spots such as Kinder Downfall and Malham Cove:

Show opens Thursday September 27, 2007
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: press visit
From 6 p.m. to midnight: public opening
Opening night musical selection by Vincent Epplay and Samon Takahashi.

More Info

http://www.palaisdetokyo.com