Tracey Emin

A second life . Tate Modern . London . March 2026

From Tate modern’s website

This landmark exhibition traces 40 years of Emin’s groundbreaking practice, showcasing career-defining sensations alongside works never exhibited before. Through painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture, and installation, Emin continues to challenge boundaries, using the female body as a powerful tool to explore passion, pain, and healing.

Dame Tracey Emin is one of the most important contemporary artists of her generation. She was catapulted into the public eye in the 1990s with iconic works like her Turner Prize-nominated My Bed, which sparked fierce critical and public debate, challenging what art could be. Emin’s disregard for any separation of the personal and the public, along with her commitment to unapologetic self-expression, came to define a historic moment in British culture and global art history.

Broadening Emin’s story, this exhibition celebrates her raw and confessional approach as she poses profound questions on love, trauma, and autobiography. It also demonstrates her lifelong commitment to painting, showing her recent work as the culmination of the ways she has channelled her life into her art.

I found this exhibition deeply moving. When I came out of the room showing her piece “How It Feels”, I struggled to think clearly for a while.

I find her work blunt, honest, and full of courage.

I hadn’t gone into the exhibition intending to take photographs, but whenever I visit museums, I often find myself observing how other people look at and respond to the art. Sometimes that can be just as compelling as the work itself.

In the second room, visitors watch her piece “Why I Never Became a Dancer.” While standing there, I began to notice people’s silhouettes against the light of the screen. I started taking photographs almost instinctively, and once I began, I simply kept going.