Tracey Emin

Emin was born in Croydon in South London in 1963, and raised in Margate, Kent. She studied fashion at the Medway College of Design (now the University for the Creative Arts) from 1980-1982. At Medway, she met Billy Childish who would become a huge inspiration for her work, and became closely associated with The Medway Poets. During this time, Emin became the administrator for Childish’s small printing press, Hangman Books.

In 1984 she went on to study printing at Maidstone Art College. In 1983, Emin opened a shop with fellow artist Sarah Lucas, called The Shop in Bethnal Green. The shop sold works by Emin and Lucas, including original t-shirts and ash trays featuring iconic artist Damien Hirst. In November 1993, Emen held her first solo show at White Cube in London. She named her autobiographical exhibition My Major Retrospective which largely consisted of personal photographs, photos of her own early paintings which she had destroyed, as well as a few emotionally charged items such as a packet of cigarettes her uncle was holding when he was decapitated in a car crash. In 1994, Emin toured the US, making stops en route with partner Carl Freedman to give readings from her autobiographical book Exploration of the Soul. In 1995, Emin produced her famous “tent” Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 which was exhibited in Freedman’s curated show Minky Manky at the South London Gallery. This piece was later bought by Charles Saatchi and included in the acclaimed 1997 Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of London, going on to tour Berlin and New York.

Emin appeared on a Channel 4 television series in 1997 titled “Is Painting Dead” which largely comprised a discussion over the Turner Prize. Two years later, in 1999, Emin was shortlisted for the Turner Prize herself and exhibited My Bed at the Tate Gallery.

In 1999, Emin exhibited a number of monoprint drawings inspired by Princess Diana for an exhibition at The Blue Gallery, London. Elton John and George Michael are both famed collectors of Emin’s work, with Michael holding the A Tribute to Tracey Emin exhibition in September 2007 at the Dallas based Goss-Michael Foundation.

A solo exhibition This is Another Place was held at the Modern Art Oxford from 2002-03 and in 2007 Emin was included in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The same year, Emin was made Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts. She has previously been invited to include works at the R. A. Summer exhibitions dating back to 2001. She curated the 2008 Summer exhibition and gave a public talk and interview with Matthew Collings, where they mused on her role within the R. A.

The first major retrospective of Emin’s work was held in Edinburgh 2008 at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and was followed by a retrospective in 2011 at London’s Hayward Gallery in 2011. Emin opened a site-specific exhibition for the Frieze Fair in 2011. She produced limited edition print for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She has been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (awarded with a CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to the Arts. Her primary galleries include White Cube, Lorcan O’Neill (Rome) and Xavier Hufkens (Brussels). Collections of her art have fetched astronomically well at auction, selling to Charles Saatchi, the 2011 Prime Minister (David Cameron), David Bowie and more for their private collections.