It's festival art – but does Glasgow artist Martin Creed's work stack up?

HE WON the Turner Prize in 2001 with an empty gallery where the lights switched on and off. In another artwork he sent sprinters through the Tate Britain every 30 seconds.

Now, the controversial Glasgow artist Martin Creed is preparing a major show in the Edinburgh Art Festival this summer by stacking chairs, tables, planks and pieces of Lego.

Creed's show at the Fruitmarket Gallery is said to focus on progression in size and growth. In one highlight, he will turn the gallery's staircase into a synthesiser, with each step sounding a different note as visitors walk up.

Creed has developed a knack for outraging critics of contemporary art, but at the same time capturing the public imagination. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize with Work No. 227: The Lights Going On and Off. In 2008, his Work No 850, with its gallery runners, proved a minor sensation with London art audiences.

He has already made his mark on Edinburgh. For Work No. 975, the neon sign reading "Everything is Going to Be Alright" recently adorned the facade of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

In another project overseen by the Fruitmarket, and also opening this summer, Creed has been commissioned to permanently transform the Scotsman Steps. In a project partly funded by the Scottish Government, he is to resurface them with different and contrasting types of marble.