Mike Nelson, The Coral Reef, Tate Britain, London

Mike Nelson The Coral Reef
Tate Britain
Millbank, London, SW1C 4RG
10am - 6pm daily
Free

Mike Nelson's The Coral Reef is currently on show as part of Tate Britain's collection displays.

Having first been exhibited at Matt's Gallery in 2000, 10 years on it remains one of the most strikingly original pieces of contemporary art you could wish to see. It is an immersive installation that takes the form of a labyrinthine construction of rooms and passage ways in which carefully placed objects act as clues to the characters that have recently left.

The experience of walking through it is disconcerting and unsettling while also being rewarding and full of entertaing surprises - make sure you've got a few 10 pence pieces with you as the arcade machine really works, and watch out for rooms that seem familiar, they may be exact copies of others...

The Nelson installation is worth the trip on its own, but be sure to take a look at Fiona Banner's breathtaking new commission for the Duveen Gallery, Harrier and Jaguar, while you're there, and also catch Francis Alÿs' Guards in the Lightbox space downstairs.

John Bock, Curve-Vehicle incl. Π-Man-(.), Barbican Curve, London

John Bock Curve-Vehicle incl. Π-Man-(.)

Barbican Curve
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, United Kingdom EC2Y 8DS
10th June - 12th September 2010
Daily 11am - 8pm, Thursdays until 10pm
Free

John Bock's practice is a visually stunning amalgam of sculpture, assemblage, performance and video that traverses the mundane, the absurd and the grotesque in a reference-laden language that is seductive, exciting and at times unsettling. Inhabiting the Barbican's large, curved gallery is a series of sculptures taking the form of ceiling- and wall-mounted 'parasites' - pod-like living spaces whose insectoid limbs break through the space's walls - and a large vehicle echoing the forms of these in a tower of pods mounted atop a taxi chassis.

Having opened last week minus a film of one of Bock's 'lectures' - the artists' preferred name for his performance works, one of which is currently being made in the space- the exhibition is due for completion by this Saturday, 19th June and is certainly not to be missed.

Photocredit Lyndon Douglas.

Ryan Gander, Lisson Gallery, London

Ryan Gander

Lisson Gallery

52-54 Bell Street, London, NW1 5DA

5th May - 5th June 2010

Monday - Friday 9.30am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 5pm

Ryan Gander's first show at the Lisson, and also his first London solo show since the excellent Ikon-curated Heralded As The New Black at the South London Gallery in 2008. Gander's oeuvre is never easily defined and intentionally difficult to pin down. Promising a new body of work constructed around the history of art, film and media, I have high hopes for this show.

If you can't make it, you can view it online here.

Susan Collis, Since I Fell For You, Ikon, Birmingham

Enter, us 2009

Susan Collis Since I Fell For You
Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS
31st March - 16th May 2010
Tuesday - Sunday 11am-6pm

Susan Collis's Since I Fell For You is her first show in a public gallery and brings together a collection of works spanning from 2002 - 2010. The show occupies one floor of the 3-storey space - one of the Midland's longest-standing and best-respected contemporary art spaces, which has in recent years played host to the likes of Martin Creed, Ryan Gander, John Wood & Paul Harrison, Lisa Milroy and Richard Deacon.

Entering the show uninitiated, the viewer could not be blamed for believing the gallery was still installing - Collis's work appears like the incidental ephemera of exhibition installation and the supports that are usually concealed by the exhibited artwork. This Too Shall Pass is a new work in which the artist has painstakingly recreated a wall from her studio - scratches and scrapes in the paint work, bent nails, Rawlplugs, a missing door and it's paint-stained frame. Upon closer inspection of the pieces (and the exhibition guide) the scratches and scrapes are revealed to be not the products of wear and tear, but an immaculately produced simulacra comprised of precious wood veneers and mother of pearl. The Rawlplugs are precious stones, the screws and nails, white gold or platinum. Enter, Us, above, is made of 18 carat white gold, white sapphire and turquoise.

While signaling the support materials and detritus of a typical exhibition set up on one hand, the work also nods towards a certain Lo-Fi aesthetic prevalent within contemporary art in which pieces of refuse and detritus are carefully selected and imbued with a sculptural quality (think Ian Kiaer, Sara Mackillop or Sean Edwards for example). Created using craft techniques of incredible skill, there is a double-play at work in the laborious creative process set to work to ultimately create an illusion of utter banality to be found throughout the exhibition - what the artist has described as being in a state of 'it is and isn't'. 1

There is a sensual, aesthetic delight in witnessing such cleverly chosen materials so expertly manipulated. Pieces such as Continue Whispering 2010 have the appearance of piles discarded timber (bent nails and all), broken door frames, and bent and misshapen carpet grippers disregarded while screws poke out from under the walls. It's also nice to see an early precursor in the shape of Work On It, 2002 - a sourced and purchased table with imitation stains and smudges akin to those of a painter's table rendered in vinyl upon its surface.

I am, however, left wondering where it all goes. Beyond the surface and the trompe l'oeil, what is there left? It's easy to see why these works have become popular in art collections - a perfect blend of cultural and material capital that's sure to grab the attention of the magpie-eyes of the contemporary art market's elite. Beyond the sheer spectacle of such ornately made objects and attention to detail, there is little left for the mind to work on.

A previous project, SWEAT 2008, at Seventeen Gallery, London, involved a sweatshop-style scenario in which a gallery full of assistants slaved to create Collis's beautifully crafted ink-patterned paper laundry bags (below). Laying bare the production behind the work hints towards a form of critique that I do not find present in the pieces here. Having first seen these pieces at last year's Frieze Art Fair, I am left wondering if they are more than quirky fetish objects to be prized by super-rich art collectors.

On Vacation 2008 (Detail)
Biro inks and pencil on paper

1 Susan Collis, exhibition guide.

The Library Of Babel/In And Out Of Place, 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London

The Library Of Babel/In And Out Of Place
176 Zabludowicz Collection
176 Prince of Wales Road, London, Nw5 3PT
25.02.10 - 09.05.10
Thursday - Sunday 12 am - 6 pm, and by appointment.
Preview Thursday 25th February 2010 7 - 9 pm

A new show at North London's 176, curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers as part of her year-long residency with the Zabludowicz Collection. Promising a salon-style hanging, the curator-in-residence has selected over 200 works works from the collection for inclusion in this exhibition.

The title The Library Of Babel comes from a 1941 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In the story inhabitants of an infinite library search for the absolute interpretation of the information around them. The website explains:

"The Library of Babel/In and Out of Place encourages the visitor to embark on a similar quest for meaning... Seemingly incongruous works belie carefully disguised threads of meaning waiting to be uncovered and interpreted."

The exhibition promises an extensive public programme featuring invited professionals and visitors acting as guides conducting tours for the public, as well as an accompanying series of lectures and discussions with scientists and theorists from backgrounds including neurology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, linguistics and literature, alongside an illustrated publication with specially commissioned texts.

For a full and extensive list of included artists click here.

Personal favourites include:
John Bock, Spartacus Chetwynd, Larry Clark, Ryan Gander, Brian Griffiths, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Graham Hudson, Juneau Projects, Jim Lambie, Louise Lawler, Mike Nelson, Nam June Paik, Paul Pfeiffer, Richard Prince, R.H. Quaytman, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Keith Tyson and Banks Violette.