Tracey Emin In Her Own Words

Tracey Emin is a well-known contemporary artist, one of the group of YBAs (Young British Artists) who included Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Gillian Wearing. Emin burst on to the artistic scene in 1997 when her seminal work, a tent appliquéd with names and entitled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, was shown at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition. It was purchased by Saatchi, but destroyed in the Momart fire in 2004. Her next iconic work was My Bed, showing a disordered bed with stained sheets and detritus such as condoms, cigarette butts, empty bottles and dirty knickers littered around it. This was shortlisted for the Turner prize, bought by Saatchi for £150,000 and displayed at the Saatchi Gallery. Emin's work is highly expressionistic, and often refers to traumatic events in her life or memories of growing up in the seaside town of Margate. She works in a wide variety of media, including painting, photography, appliqué, sculpture and neon text. Her work has been shown worldwide, and she has had numerous solo exhibitions including a 2007 show at the Venice Biennale (she was only the second woman to put on a solo show there, after Rachel Whiteread); a 2008 retrospective, Twenty Years, which attracted a record 40,000 visitors to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; and a 2014 show at London's White Cube Gallery, The Last Great Adventure is You, which was highly acclaimed. In 2012, she mentored a young artist to produce artwork for twelve British Airways planes in the run-up to the London Olympics. She also produced a poster and limited edition print for the Olympics and Paralympics, and carried the Olympic torch through Margate. She was chosen to redesign the Brit Award statuette for the 2015 ceremony, and her design, featuring a patchwork rosette, was hailed by Brits chairman Max Lousada as 'bold, brilliant, colourful and inventive'. In 2013, Emin was awarded the CBE for services to the arts. The same year, Woman's Hour voted her one of the 100 most powerful women in Britain.

Tracey Emin is a well-known contemporary artist, one of the group of YBAs (Young British Artists) who included Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Gillian Wearing. Emin burst on to the artistic scene in 1997 when her seminal work, a tent appliquéd with names and entitled Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, was shown at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition. It was purchased by Saatchi, but destroyed in the Momart fire in 2004. Her next iconic work was My Bed, showing a disordered bed with stained sheets and detritus such as condoms, cigarette butts, empty bottles and dirty knickers littered around it. This was shortlisted for the Turner prize, bought by Saatchi for £150,000 and displayed at the Saatchi Gallery. Emin's work is highly expressionistic, and often refers to traumatic events in her life or memories of growing up in the seaside town of Margate. She works in a wide variety of media, including painting, photography, appliqué, sculpture and neon text. Her work has been shown worldwide, and she has had numerous solo exhibitions including a 2007 show at the Venice Biennale (she was only the second woman to put on a solo show there, after Rachel Whiteread); a 2008 retrospective, Twenty Years, which attracted a record 40,000 visitors to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; and a 2014 show at London's White Cube Gallery, The Last Great Adventure is You, which was highly acclaimed. In 2012, she mentored a young artist to produce artwork for twelve British Airways planes in the run-up to the London Olympics. She also produced a poster and limited edition print for the Olympics and Paralympics, and carried the Olympic torch through Margate. She was chosen to redesign the Brit Award statuette for the 2015 ceremony, and her design, featuring a patchwork rosette, was hailed by Brits chairman Max Lousada as 'bold, brilliant, colourful and inventive'. In 2013, Emin was awarded the CBE for services to the arts. The same year, Woman's Hour voted her one of the 100 most powerful women in Britain.