Tracey Emin

Artist

Tracey Emin is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork, and a prominent member of the Young British Artists who rose to fame in the late 1980s. Born in London in 1963, she was brought up in Margate, Kent. Emin completed an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art making expressionist painting inspired by the work of Munch and Schiele. Some years later, Emin returned to making art, this time using her personal experience to make highly confessional works. Her first solo exhibition included a display of personal memorabilia and photographs of all of her destroyed paintings in a disarmingly frank exploration of her own life.

Key works have included Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), demonstrating Emin's ability to make confrontational and provocative works that make a strong challenge to the definition of what art could be. Her canvas for story telling has been wide-ranging. She has utilised drawing, filmmaking, installation, painting, neon, photography, appliqué and sculpture. Emin exposes herself, her hopes, humiliations, failures and successes in an incredibly direct manner that traverses tragedy and humour. She is a regular contributor to GQ Magazine and the Independent newspaper. A sponsorship relationship means Emin also appears in adverts and at social events for Vivienne Westwood.

Emin's works have been exhibited widely, including: The Wonderful Fund - Collecting Art for the New Millennium, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2006; Body - New Art from the UK, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada, 2005; Tracey Emin, Magasin - Centre National d'art Contemporain de Grenoble, France, 2005; Premieres, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US, 2004; David Hockney/Tracey Emin Dibujos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, 2004; Happiness - A Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2003; Just Love Me - Post Feministic Art of the 1990s, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Germany, 2003; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia 2002; This is Another Place, Great Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Ten Years, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; I Think it's in my head, Lehmann Laupin Gallery, New York Haus der Kunst, München; You forgot to kiss my soul, White Cube, London; Rapture: Art's Seduction by Fashion Since 1970, Barbican Gallery, London 2001; Century City, Tate Modern, London 2000; Love is a Strange Thing, Fig.1, London; What Do You Know About Love, Galerie Gebauer, Berlin 1999; Every Part of Me's Bleeding, Lehmann Maupin, New York; The British Art Show 5, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (National Touring Exhibitions) 1999; Loose Threads, Serpentine Gallery, London; Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London 1998; Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 1996; Full House, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg 1996; Life/Live, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Centro de Exposições do Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist) 1993; Minky Manky, South London Gallery, London; Arnolfini, Bristol (curated by Carl Freedman) 1993; Hotel Carlton Palace, Chambre 763, Hotel Carlton Palace, Paris (curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist) 
1994 and Karaoke & Football, Portikus, Frankfurt.

Tracey Emin is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork, and a prominent member of the Young British Artists who rose to fame in the late 1980s. Born in London in 1963, she was brought up in Margate, Kent. Emin completed an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art making expressionist painting inspired by the work of Munch and Schiele. Some years later, Emin returned to making art, this time using her personal experience to make highly confessional works. Her first solo exhibition included a display of personal memorabilia and photographs of all of her destroyed paintings in a disarmingly frank exploration of her own life.

Key works have included Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), demonstrating Emin's ability to make confrontational and provocative works that make a strong challenge to the definition of what art could be. Her canvas for story telling has been wide-ranging. She has utilised drawing, filmmaking, installation, painting, neon, photography, appliqué and sculpture. Emin exposes herself, her hopes, humiliations, failures and successes in an incredibly direct manner that traverses tragedy and humour. She is a regular contributor to GQ Magazine and the Independent newspaper. A sponsorship relationship means Emin also appears in adverts and at social events for Vivienne Westwood.

Emin's works have been exhibited widely, including: The Wonderful Fund - Collecting Art for the New Millennium, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2006; Body - New Art from the UK, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada, 2005; Tracey Emin, Magasin - Centre National d'art Contemporain de Grenoble, France, 2005; Premieres, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US, 2004; David Hockney/Tracey Emin Dibujos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, 2004; Happiness - A Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2003; Just Love Me - Post Feministic Art of the 1990s, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Germany, 2003; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia 2002; This is Another Place, Great Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Ten Years, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; I Think it's in my head, Lehmann Laupin Gallery, New York Haus der Kunst, München; You forgot to kiss my soul, White Cube, London; Rapture: Art's Seduction by Fashion Since 1970, Barbican Gallery, London 2001; Century City, Tate Modern, London 2000; Love is a Strange Thing, Fig.1, London; What Do You Know About Love, Galerie Gebauer, Berlin 1999; Every Part of Me's Bleeding, Lehmann Maupin, New York; The British Art Show 5, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (National Touring Exhibitions) 1999; Loose Threads, Serpentine Gallery, London; Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London 1998; Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 1996; Full House, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg 1996; Life/Live, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Centro de Exposições do Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist) 1993; Minky Manky, South London Gallery, London; Arnolfini, Bristol (curated by Carl Freedman) 1993; Hotel Carlton Palace, Chambre 763, Hotel Carlton Palace, Paris (curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist) 
1994 and Karaoke & Football, Portikus, Frankfurt.

Back to top