Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1963 Croydon, London, England

Other name/s: Tracey Emin DBE RA

Biography

Contemporary artist Tracey Karmina Emin CBE RA was born in in Croydon, London on 3 July 1963. Her father, of Turkish Cypriot descent, arrived in the UK in 1948 by boat, having bought his ticket for £10. After settling here, he married Tracey's mother, an English woman of Romanichal heritage. Emin grew up in Margate, Kent, alongside her twin brother, Paul. Her education in the arts began at Medway College of Design, Kent (1980–82) and continued at Maidstone College of Art, Kent (1983–86) where she obtained a BA in Printmaking. She then enrolled in an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (1987–89). Emin was a member of the Young British Artists (YBAs) cohort in the late 1980s, her works embodying a candid and autobiographical approach, mixing art and personal revelation. Fellow YBA artist Sarah Lucas remains her lifelong friend. In 1997, Emin gained media attention for her inebriated and profane appearance on the live British TV programme The Death of Painting.

Emin’s art is deeply autobiographical and confessional, focusing on her personal experiences and often exploring themes of identity, sexuality, emotion and trauma, especially sexual assault, abortion and illness. She uses a range of mediums encompassing needlework, sculpture, painting, neon pieces and video to express her raw and sometimes controversial viewpoints. Defying British societal norms, she openly discusses personal issues, such as alcoholism and gender roles, broadening her appeal and contributing to contemporary discussions on women’s issues. Emin’s art - which challenges the stereotype of a demure Englishwoman - alongside her unapologetic persona and candid public engagements form the crux of her popularity. Two of her most renowned works are the installation pieces Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 (1995), a tent embroidered with the names of all the people with whom she had shared a bed, and the now iconic My Bed (1998), featuring her own unmade bed, surrounded by personal detritus, symbolising a period of emotional turmoil. This controversial readymade installation was her nomination for the 1999 Turner Prize and catapulted her into the media spotlight. Another typical and more recent work, the painting There was blood (2022) reflected Emin’s introspection on life’s transient yet intense moments and a meditation on the dichotomies of life and death, presence and absence.

Representing Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2007, Emin’s installation Borrowed Light displayed her signature introspective style and consolidated her status in the international art world, confirmed by a solo show at London's Hayward Gallery in 2011. Since 2018, her large-scale, pink, 'handwritten' light sculpture, I want my time with you greets international visitors arriving at London's St. Pancras station. More recently, her exhibition The Loneliness of the Soul (2020) was presented at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where her work was juxtaposed with that of Edvard Munch, one of her greatest influences. Viewers could compare their portrayals of graphic nudes and disturbed women. Emin, having battled aggressive cancer prior to the exhibition, focused on the theme of the destruction of the female body. A major solo exhibition Lovers Grave was held at White Cube New York (2023–24), inspired by archaeological burial sites and exploring themes of love and devotion. Emin’s own life-threatening illness profoundly influenced this show, deeply impacting her physical and artistic perspective.

Beyond exhibitions and artworks, Emin has an extensive list of connections, positions, projects and recognitions. Early in her career, she had a professional relationship with the artist and musician Billy Childish; however, her approach diverged from the Stuckist movement which he later co-founded, and which critiqued the conceptual art for which Emin is known. The movement’s name was inspired by Emin’s own criticism of Childish’s practice. In 2007, Emin was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts in London; in 2013 she was made a CBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II; she was made a Dame (DBE) in the King's birthday honours list in 2024. Emin has also held the position of Eranda Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools (2011–13). Emin’s links with celebrities, including Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, Naomi Campbell, Elton John, Madonna, George Michael and Kate Moss, highlights her influence in both the art and popular culture spheres; furthermore, Elton John is an important collector of her work. In 2023, having moved from Spitalfields in east London to Kent, Emin established TKE Studios in Margate to give aspiring artists a platform and in the same year she joined the British Museum’s Board of Trustees.

Tracey Emin lives and works in Margate, Kent. Her works are held in several UK public collections, including the British Museum; National Portrait Gallery; South London Gallery and Tate, London, as well as Scottish National Galleries, Edinburgh; the Women’s Art Collection and the Government Art Collection. In 2012 Emin's work featured in Ben Uri's exhibition and accompanying publication, celebrating the art of Judy Chicago, alongside pieces by Louise Bourgeois and Helen Chadwick.

Related books

Heidi Bale Amundsen, ed., Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: the Loneliness of the Soul, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2021)
Jonathan Jones, Tracey Emin (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2020)
Alexandra Kokoli and Deborah Cherry, Tracey Emin: Art into Life (London: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2020)
Griselda Pollock, Liquid culture, 'The Art of Life and Dancing with Tracey Emin: A feminist Art Historian/Cultural Analyst’s Perspective on Bauman’s Missing Cultural Hermeneutics', Thesis eleven, Vol.156, No. 1, 2020, pp.10-26
Harry Weller, ed., Tracey Emin: a Fortnight of Tears (London: White Cube, 2019)
Jonathan Jones, Tracey Emin: Works 2007-2017 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2017)
Laura Lake Smith, 'Telling Stories: Performing Authenticity in the Confessional Art of Tracey Emin', Rethinking History: the Journal of Theory and Practice, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2017, pp. 296-309
Yxta Maya Murray, 'Rape Trauma, the State, and the Art of Tracey Emin', California Law Review, Vol. 100, No. 6, 2012, pp. 1631-1710
Gulsum Baydar, 'Bedrooms in Excess: Feminist Strategies Used by Tracey Emin and Semiha Berksoy', Vol. 33, No. 2, 2012, pp. 28-34
'Judy Chicago and Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Helen Chadwick: A Transatlantic Dialogue', Rachel Dickson, ed., (London: Lund Humphries and Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2012)
Patrick Elliott and Julian Schnabel, Tracey Emin: 20 Years, exh. cat. (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2008)

Public collections

Related organisations

British Museum (Board of Trustees )
Maidstone College of Art (student )
Medway College of Art (currently Kent Institute of Art and Design) (student)
Royal Academy of Arts (Royal Academician)
Royal Academy Schools (professor)
Royal College of Art (student )
TKE Studios (founder)

Selected exhibitions

Lovers Grave (solo exhibition), White Cube, New York (2023–24)
I Lay Here for You (solo exhibition), Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2022)
The Loneliness of the Soul (solo exhibition), Royal Academy of Arts, London (2020)
Judy Chicago and Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Helen Chadwick: A Transatlantic Dialogue', Ben Uri: The London Jewish Museum of Art, London (2012)
Love is What You Want (solo exhibition), Hayward Gallery, London (2011)
Twenty Years (solo retrospective), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2008)
Borrowed Light (solo exhibition), British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Giardini, Venice (2007)
This is Another Place (solo exhibition), Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2002)
Every Part of Me's Bleeding (solo exhibition), Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York (1999)
Turner Prize Shortlist (group show), Tate Gallery, London (1999)
Minky Manky (group show), South London Gallery, London (1995)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Tracey Emin]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Tracey Emin artist