Ed Atkins (b. Oxford, 1982) is the subject of a comprehensive exhibition at Tate Britain running until 25th August.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential British artists of his generation, Ed Atkins is renowned for his computer-generated videos and animations. His innovative practice subverts contemporary digital technologies, using them in surprising and poetic ways to explore the narrowing divide between virtual experience and human emotion.

The exhibition at Tate Britain explores ideas of loss, digital transformation, theatre, family connections, AI and covid 19. Drawing from the languages of cinema, video games, literature, music, and theatre, Atkins interrogates the complex interplay between reality, realism, and fiction.

Spanning the past 15 years, this exhibition brings together moving image works alongside writing, paintings, embroideries, and drawings (the Spider series is particularly striking!). Through these pieces, the artist draws on his own body, emotions, and lived experiences to navigate the space between technology and deeply human themes such as intimacy, love, and loss. Collectively, the works create a dialogue between the ephemeral nature of digital existence and the tangible world of materiality. The TV in the last room features non-stop live news from Sky TV instilling ideas of emptiness and subsequently death.

Repetition and variation function as key structural elements throughout the exhibition. Atkins deliberately fragments works across different rooms, replays them, or shifts their format—creating a sense of the familiar rendered uncanny. Through digression, error, confusion, incoherence, and interruption, he evokes the unpredictability of lived experience. For Atkins, this exhibition is a reflection of life’s inherent messiness: the more we live, the more layered and uncontainable it becomes.

At the centre of the exhibition is a collection of drawings made on Post-It notes, created by the artist for his children during the covid 19 lockdown. Atkins refers to them as “miniature images of seemingly infinite invention” and “tiny, laboured, inscrutable attempts to communicate feeling.” For him, these small sketches act like a legend on a map—offering a guide for how to look, how to feel. Infused with joy, playfulness, absurdity, and confession, the drawings are ultimately expressions of deep love. This show is hard to grasp, yet successful and intriguing.

Image: Ed Atkins, © Ed Atkins.