Throughout his work, Nathan Coley expresses curiosity about how we relate to public spaces and architecture. He is also interested in what we believe. His research informs drawings, photographs, sculptures and videos that often contain words or phrases.

His work. There Will Be No Miracles Here (2006) explores belief. The phrase is spelled out in lit bulbs on bare metal scaffolding. The brightness and size of There Will Be No Miracles Here make it a spectacle, while the gaps in its frame include its chosen backdrop as part of the Work. The factor of Surprise in this piece, like much of the artist's Work, also expresses an element of humour. The Words seen like a regulation - Coley adopted them from a sign that was once erected in a village in seventeenth-century France by order of the King.

The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh 2004 is an installation of sculptures made up of all 286 religious and spiritual buildings that were listed in the 2004 Edinburgh Yellow Pages directory under places of worship'. A mammoth task, Coley had previously undertaken a similar work with The Lamp of Sacrifice, 161 Places of Worship, Birmingham 2000. In Birmingham, Coley made the models over a course of seven weeks in front of visitors to the Ikon Gallery.

Coley adopted the idea of an architectural Lamp of Sacrifice' from the Victorian artist and critic John Ruskin (1819–1900), who wrote in his famed 1849 essay The Seven Lamps of Architecture. It is not the church we want, but the sacrifice... ." Coley explores Ruskin's idea that buildings and architecture are two separate things - one being functional and the other art. Coley strips all religious insignia from the buildings and reconstructs them to scale in simple brown cardboard. He unites the buildings as one group or community. As fewer people go to church and the diversity of different areas shifts, the cardboard models offer a playful and abstract perspective on the buildings. Physically they represent buildings but emotionally they are religious architecture and in equal measure baffle and enlighten people. Nathan Coley doesn't provide answers but he does inspire those who see his work to ask questions.

Nathan Coley (born 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he currently lives and works) is a contemporary British artist who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2007 and has held both solo and group exhibitions internationally, as well as his work being owned by both private and public collections worldwide. He studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art between 1985 and 1989 with the artists Christine Borland, Ross Sinclair and Douglas Gordon amongst others.Coley is interested in the idea of 'public' space, and his practice explores the ways in which architecture becomes invested - and reinvested - with meaning. Across a range of media, Coley investigates what the built environment reveals about the people it surrounds and how the social and individual response to it is in turn culturally conditioned. Using the readymade as a means to take from and re-place in the world, Coley addresses the ritual forms we use to articulate our beliefs - from hand-held placards and erected signs to religious sanctuaries.Nathan Coley's luminous installation entitled We Must Cultivate Our Garden, is currently exhibited outside of the Tate Modern. The words are taken from the satirical novella Candide (1759) by the French writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778). Standing in the landscape, opposite the high-rise buildings in the City of London, the words seem to be urging us to act.Moreover, Coley's most recent solo show entitled Nathan Coley: No Golden Rules, concluded in July 2023 at The Page Gallery in South Korea. The exhibition featured a selection of important works emblematic of his practice: a series of signature large-scale illuminated text works; related small-scale lightbox works, and a group of sculptures representing buildings from different faiths. The exhibition's title is taken from a phrase by the humanist playwright, critic and philosopher George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who said that 'The Golden Rule is that there are no golden rules'.

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