For decades Tracey Emin has been synonymous with provocative and sexually explicit art, inspiring a generation of female artist who explore womanhood and feminism.
Emin emerged in the art world during the 1980s as part of the Young British Artists movement (YBAs), with controversial pieces such as My Bed. She had her first solo exhibiton at the White Cube gallery in London in 1994 entitled My Major Retrospective and a year later she opened the Tracey Emin Museum in Waterloo. She rose to fame with her 1995 piece Everyone I have Ever Slept With, 1963-1995.
In 2007 Emin became the second female artist ever to represent Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale. That same year, she was made a Royal Academician and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, a Doctor of Letters from the University of Kent and a Doctor of Philosophy from London Metropolitan University. In 2011, Emin became the Royal Academy’s Professor of Drawing, and in 2012 was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the visual arts.
Emin features in public and private collections around the world, including the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Hara Museum in Tokyo, Museum van Loon in Amsterdam and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
