CURATED ARTS FIRST LOOK Tracey Emin: A Second Life at Tate Modern

Tracey Emin: A Second Life at Tate Modern

Tracey Emin's must-see retrospective at Tate Modern packs plenty of punch and leaves you craving more.

From the moment you step into Dame Tracey Emin's new blockbuster retrospective at London's Tate Modern, you’re whisked on a rollercoaster ride through her complex and unpredictable world. Every painting, film, and sculpture pulses with raw energy, revealing a bold, honest celebration of a life lived at full throttle - no apologies, just pure, electrifying Emin.

While the critics may say Emin is having her moment in the sun, the artist has been enjoying the limelight ever since she ignited the YBA art scene back in the late 1980’s. And now, through her unique lens and by using the female body to explore passion, pain and healing, we can see how her work has evolved in response to whatever life has thrown at her. Abortion, heartbreak and, more recently, her battle with cancer. Everything is laid bare at Tate Modern's largest-ever survey exhibition. The showcase covers Emin's 40-year practice, from her art school snapshots taken in the 1980s to her most recent bronzes and paintings, many of which are on display for the first time.

Amongst the 90 or so works, some of the most powerful pieces, too many to list here, include Emin's hand-stitched tapestries and her iconic masterpiece, 'My Bed 1998'. On first viewing, the bed itself is much smaller than you might have previously imagined, while the detritus that surrounds it, condoms, tampon cases and cigarette butts... hold a lurid fascination.

In another room, sits the second of her two seminal installations, 'Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, 1996'. The work documents a period of three weeks where Emin locked herself in a Stockholm gallery, attempting to reconcile her relationship with painting, which she had abandoned six years prior after her experience of abortion.

Another standout piece is 1995's poignant video work 'Why I Never Became a Dancer,' in which the artist recounts traumatic events from her teenage years in Margate. Collectively, these initial pieces evoke Emin’s unmistakable narrative style and deeply personal method of storytelling. The seaside town is, of course, a place close to the artist's heart. Clear references can be seen in the small-scale wooden rollercoaster, 'It's Not the Way I Want to Die 2005'. The piece draws inspiration from the town’s famous amusement park, Dreamland, to reflect on her anxieties and vulnerabilities.

The show concludes with Emin's most recent self-portraits, large canvases that fuse daubs of blood-red and black paint with poetry and delicate outlines of her splayed body. Her 'I Followed You to the End' series, painted in 2004, is a case in point.

Whatever you may think of her, Emin is without doubt a true living, breathing artist in every sense of the word. She has previously said that she hopes to follow in the footsteps of other pivotal female artists, such as Louise Bourgeois and work daily, well into her nineties and beyond. We can but hope.

Tracey Emin: A Second Life runs from February 27 to August 31, 2026.

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG