Lehmann Maupin Gallery announced Tracey Emin’s appointment as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her contributions to the visual arts.
The prestigious appointment comes on the heels of two significant solo exhibitions presented in the United Kingdom and her participation in the preparation for the 2012 London Games. In May 2012, Turner Contemporary, Margate presented She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea, following the Hayward Gallery’s 2011 retrospective, Love Is What You Want. Emin conceived the Turner Contemporary, Margate exhibition specifically for the seaside town where she was raised and which has served as the inspiration for many of her works. Emin returned to Turner Contemporary, Margate in July 2012 to carry the Olympic torch through the city and designed an Olympic and Paralympic poster for the London games.
Born in 1963 in London, England, Tracey Emin enrolled at the Maidstone College of Art, Kent to study painting. She continued her studies at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts, London, where she earned a Master’s degree in painting. Today, Emin is regarded as one of Britain’s most significant contemporary artists. She is internationally recognized for her blunt, personal, and revealing style, which elicits a broad spectrum of emotions ranging from shock to empathy to self-reflection. Drawing on personal experiences, Emin often reveals painful situations with brutal honesty and poetic humor in a wide variety of media including painting, drawing, embroidery, neon, installation, sculpture, and film.
In 1999, Lehmann Maupin presented Tracey Emin’s first solo exhibition in the United States, Every Part of Me’s Bleeding. Following this critically acclaimed exhibition, Emin presented her infamous installation “Bed” at the Tate Gallery for which she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. In 2007, Emin was chosen to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, becoming the second female artist to ever do so. That same year, Emin 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.
The artist’s extensive exhibition history includes solo and group exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2009); Blumenbar Verlag, Berlin, Germany (2008); Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK (2010); Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas (2010); The Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2011); Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2012); Malba – Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina (2012). Forthcoming exhibitions include a two gallery solo show at Lehmann Maupin, New York in May 2013, and a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami in December 2013.
Tracey Emin lives and works in London, England and has been represented by Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong since 1999.
