Butt is it art? The Tate looks at Britart in 2003.

see images page one, page two, page three

Sobriety rubs shoulders with funkiness in Days Like These, Tate Britain's survey of contemporary British art. Jim Lambie's striking installation Zobop falls into the latter category, transforming a large area of floor in the gallery's main concourse into a multicoloured maze of lines. It contrasts strongly with Rachel Whiteread's adjacent sculptures, two imposing plaster casts.

Such contrasts recur throughout the exhibition, which includes work by 23 artists. Established names like Cornelia Parker and Richard Hamilton rub shoulders with younger, less renowned figures like Gillian Carnegie and Nathan Coley (former artist-in-residence at the Lockerbie trial).

Highlights include: George Shaw's meticulous Humbrol paintings, which reinvigorate a British landscape art tradition for those who grew up in late 20th-century suburbia; Paul Noble's witty, sinister large-scale pencil drawing Aucumulus Nobilitatus; and artist-musician David Cunningham's intriguing piece that manipulates the ambient sound in the gallery's side entrance.

Days Like These provides a varied round-up of contemporary UK art, presenting it in a refreshingly straightforward manner that sidesteps the fussy contention associated with Turner Prizes of late. Daniel Etherington 28 February 03

Days Like These is at Tate Britain in London until 26 May 03. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster on 0870 1668283.

useful link: tate: days like these official site