Portal:London/Showcase biography/01 2010
Tracey Emin RA (born 3 July 1963, in Croydon) is a British artist born to a Turkish Cypriot father and British mother, one of the group known as Britartists or YBAs (Young British Artists).
In 1997, her work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with names, was shown at Charles Saatchi's Sensation exhibition. In 1999, she was a Turner Prize nominee and exhibited My Bed — an installation, consisting of her own unmade dirty bed with used condoms and blood-stained underwear. There has been an ongoing dispute with former boyfriend, artist Billy Childish, particularly over the Stuckism movement, founded in 1999 and named after an insult by her.
In March 2007, Emin was chosen to join the Royal Academy of Arts in London as a Royal Academician. She represented Britain at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Her first major retrospective 20 Years was held in Edinburgh 2008, and tours Europe until 2009. Emin's art takes many different forms of expression including needlework and sculpture, drawing, video and installation, photography and painting.