Ed Atkins, Serpentine Sackler Gallery

Adding to an exhilarating summer at the Serpentine Gallery, Ed Atkins brings cutting-edge, contemporary video and text practice to the programme

The Artist..

Ed Atkins is well on his way along a trajectory from respected young artist to major art world figure. His reputation has been cemented in recent years with the help of exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery and MoMA PS1, his inclusion in Tate's 2011 Art Now and his writer in residency at Whitechapel Gallery. Now, this latest exhibition at the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery signals Atkins' inevitable break into the mainstream consciousness. Furthermore, the proximity of Marina Abramovic's much anticipated durational performance, which is sure to draw big crowds to the neighbouring Serpentine Gallery, will certainly give Atkins' visitor numbers boost.

Atkins embodies the current trend in London's art scene towards the fusion of visual art and writing practice. His eye catching and often disorientating video works are backed up with real writerly talent. Text, spoken and printed, permeates his work, but Atkins uses this text to subvert the conventions of literature and filmmaking.

The Exhibition...

But Atkins' videos are not dry, academic exercises; there is plenty of spectacle to be found here, with a touch of b-movie aesthetics too. For the Sackler Gallery show Atkins has installed a site-specific version of his new film Ribbons. Typically, Atkins' films are richly textured and multi layered sensory assaults of syncopated music and fragmented dialogue, murmurings and mismatched subtitles. Ribbons stars the artist's uncannily hyperreal digital avatar, a frequent figure in Atkins' videos. The product of many years working with specialist CGI software, this character is both totally convincing and, in the words of the artist " literally a model... demonstrably empty – a surrogate and a vessel' onto which the viewer may project their own ideas, anxieties and fears.

This show may well turn out to be one of the summer's unexpected hits, so do your best to see it before the crowds get there.