The loafer's guide

Martin Creedworks
TV evangelist? No, a conceptual artist, although he does have a message or two for his audiences, the most famous of which, the whole world + the work = the whole world , is writ large, in neon, over the front entrance of Tate Britain. What it means is anyone's guess - though Creed, Britart's latest star, is keen that his work, after a brief flurry on the art stage, leaves little physical trace of its existence.

A modern-day Manzoni? Not quite. Sixties artist Piero Manzoni turned the whole world into art by inverting an engraved plinth, which read 'Pedestal for the World', on the ground outside. They're both minimalists of sorts, though. At 33 and with a retrospective already under his belt, Creed is hot property.

So what's he got to offer? Something and nothing. Or, as Creed himself puts it, 'My work amounts to a sort of equation. I start from nothing and try to make something and at the same time try not to make it and to get back to nothing again.'

Where can I see - or not see - his work? Creed's first major touring exhibition, MartinCreedWorks, is about to arrive in Liverpool (19 August to 30 September, Bluecoat Gallery, School Lane; 0151 709 5689). Art lovers from Southampton to Leeds may already have had a close encounter with his trademark balloon piece, Half the Air in a Given Space - an installation which entails filling a gallery space with balloons, in a kind of grown-up version of an Ikea crèche. The Bluecoat Gallery is getting its own an all-red version - a first in this country - as well as a tailor-made edition of CreedWork number 142: A Large Piece of Furniture Partially Obscuring a Door .

Can I buy it? Not unless you have a few thousand quid to spare. Even his balls of crumpled-up A4 paper were rumoured to have sold last year for £150 each, and his Blu-Tack and sticky tape chefs d'oeuvre (Valerie Singleton must have been an early influence) go for something similar.

Any awards in the offing? Creed was widely tipped for a Turner Prize nomination this year, but in the event his small, somewhat anal interventions failed to impress the judges. He must be long overdue for a Blue Peter badge, though.

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