Tracey Emin, Everyone That I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995. Destroyed in the 2004 Momart fire. Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London.
The British Council announced on August 25 2006 that Tracey Emin will represent Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007. The artist will produce new work specially for the British Pavilion.
"Tracey's work goes from strength to strength. She's a storyteller with an extraordinary ability to scratch away the surfaces to what lies below," said Andrea Rose, Director of Visual Arts, The British Council and Commissioner for the British Pavilion.
Born in London in 1963, but brought up in Margate, Emin's work draws with ineffable candour on her life and times. Using a wide variety of media - from needlework, photography and video to drawing, painting, sculpture and neon - Emin both pricks pretensions and tells a story with a unique and increasingly compelling voice.
Shortlisted for the Turner Prize in l999, she has had several solo exhibitions in Europe, among them at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2002.
Tracey Emin, The Simple Truth. © The artist courtesy Jay Jobling/White Cube Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, SBC London.
The Venice Biennale will provide an opportunity to see new work by Emin following her recent highly acclaimed exhibition 'When I think about sex' (White Cube, London, 2005).
Tracey will be the second female artist ever to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition. The first was Rachel Whiteread in 1997.
"This is a great moment to see her work in the context of the Venice Biennale, where her work will be shown in an international context and at a distance from the YBA generation with which she came to prominence," said The British Council's Andrea Rose.
