Dame Tracey Emin Photo Steven Collis
Margate artist Dame Tracey Emin will hold a ‘landmark’ exhibition at the Tate Modern in London early net year.
Tracey Emin: A Second Life traces 40 years of Emin’s groundbreaking practice, showcasing career-defining works as well as those never exhibited before.
Through painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture, and installation, Emin continues to challenge boundaries, using the female body as a powerful tool to explore passion, pain, and healing.
Dame Tracey Emin was catapulted into the public eye in the 1990s with works like her Turner Prize nominated My Bed, which sparked fierce critical and public debate.
Tracey Emin with the My Bed installation in 2017
As a teenager she studied fine art printmaking at Maidstone College of Art and then painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and was elected a Royal Academician in the same year.
In 2011, Tracey became the Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
In 2022, as part of her foundation, Tracey set up TKE studios in Margate for established as well as emerging artists.
In June 2024, King Charles III appointed her Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the visual arts.
This year she received an Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University.
Dame Tracey Emin has received an Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University
In 2020 the artist received a diagnosis of bladder cancer and underwent an operation in the Summer which meant the removal of many of her female reproductive organs. She now has a stoma bag but is in remission from the cancer.
The artist’s investments in Thanet include the TKE site, consisting of a former Edwardian bathhouse, mortuary and children’s nursery, bought in November 2021 for £750,000. She has since spent upwards of £1million renovating and refurbishing the site.
It now consists of artist studios and gallery spaces to provide “a perfect working environment.”
She also bought nearby flats which she is renting to her artists at a subsidised rate.
Tracey exhibited works at the Carl Freedman Gallery Image Carl Freedman Gallery
The artist also owns her studio/living space at the former Thanet Press site which she moved to in 2017, The Brown Jug pub in Broadstairs, the former Margate Constitutional Club and One Union Crescent and the Westbrook Loggia building.
The exhibition celebrates her raw and confessional approach as she poses questions on love, trauma, and autobiography. It also demonstrates her lifelong commitment to painting, showing her recent work as the culmination of the ways she has channelled her life into her art.
Tracey Emin: A Second Life is presented in the Eyal Ofer Galleries in partnership with Gucci, supported by Tate Members. It runs from 26 February 2026 – 31 August 2026.
Entry £20 / Free for Members
Concessions available