Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin is one of the most celebrated living, contemporary artists. Her style is characterised by the use of abstraction and figuration, and is charged with deep-rooted expressions of personal experience and extreme states of emotion.

Born in London and raised in Margate, Emin had a troubled upbringing; she experienced several life-changing traumas which had a lasting effect on her mental health, but proved to be a central driving force for her artistic practice. Emin graduated from Maidstone College of Art in 1986 and went on to study at the Royal College of Art, obtaining an MA in painting.

She rose to fame when she became affiliated with the loose group of visual artists, known as the YBA’s - Young British Artists. The group included the likes of Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst, and were known for their artist-led exhibitions, entrepreneurial attitude and wild-living. They dominated the British art scene in the 1990s. 

In 1999, Emin had her first solo exhibition in the United States at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, entitled ‘Every Part of Me's Bleeding’. Later that year she exhibited ‘My Bed’ - a re-creation of her dirtied, unmade bed. The work is highly charged with sexual yet depressive connotations, representing a physical response to a troubled period in Emin’s life. It was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize, and is now part of the Tate’s permanent collection. 

In 2007, Emin joined the Royal Academy of Arts and represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 2011, she was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy, and is one of the first two female professors since the Academy was founded in 1768.

Tracey Emin’s work covers a plethora of medias, including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and installation, transforming into highly personalised mediums for her unique voice, which has paved the way for her success.