Emin, Tracey

Tracey Emin – Biography

Tracey Emin, in full Tracey Karima Emin (born July 3, 1963, Croyden, Greater London, England), British artist noted for using a wide range of media—including drawing, video, and installation art, as well as sculpture and painting—and her own life as the subject of her art. Her works were confessional, provocative, and transgressive, often portraying sexual acts and reproductive organs. Critics were seldom lukewarm in their response to her. Like Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, she was considered one of the YBAs (Young British Artists;  also known as the BritArtists) who came to prominence in the 1990s.

Emin and her twin brother, Paul, were born to an unwed mother. Their father, who was married to someone other than their mother, was a Turkish Cypriot. Emin grew up in the seaside resort town of Margate. She dropped out of school at age 13 and moved to London at 15. Two years later she attended Medway College of Design (now part of the University for the Creative Arts), Rochester, where she studied fashion. She was accepted without a secondary-school certificate at nearby Maidstone College of Art (also now part of UCA) and earned a fine-arts degree in 1986. Thereafter she obtained a master’s degree in painting (1989) from the Royal College of Art in London.