She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea: Tracey Emin in Margate

Tracey Emin: She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea

until september 23, 2012

Turner Contemporary, Margate (Kent GB)

Tracey Emin comes home to Margate with an exhibition of new works at Turner Contemporary until september 23

She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea: Tracey Emin at Turner Contemporary is conceived specially for Margate, where Emin grew up and which has provided inspiration for many of her most famous art works.

The exhibition explores the themes of love, sex and romanticism in Emin’s oeuvre. It features new works, including drawings, monoprints, sculptures, tapestries, embroideries and neons and will be installed throughout Turner Contemporary’s suite of first-floor galleries.

The exhibition’s central themes are continued in a group of sketches and paintings of erotic subjects by Tracey Emin, JMW Turner and Auguste Rodin, whose iconic sculpture The Kiss is on show in the Sunley Gallery at Turner Contemporary. This section of the exhibition considers the artists in terms of their shared fascination with female sexuality and the varying means by which they explore the subject.

Tracey Emin said: “I still can’t really believe that I’m showing in Margate. Even in my wildest dreams I could never believe there would be a gallery like Turner Contemporary there. So on one level I’m really chuffed and excited but on another I am as nervous as hell. The brilliant thing about Margate is it’s one hour from London on the train so I’m hoping lots of people will come and visit not just my show but the beautiful sunsets and sandy beaches.”

Victoria Pomery, Director, Turner Contemporary said: ‘We are thrilled to be working with Tracey on this exhibition of new work, which considers Tracey’s extensive oeuvre in a new light.’

A fully illustrated catalogue is available to accompany the exhibition.

Tracey Emin biography: Tracey Emin was born in London in 1963 and grew up in Margate, Kent. She studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. She has exhibited extensively internationally, including solo exhibitions ‘Love is What You Want’, Hayward Gallery, London (2011), and ‘Do Not Abandon Me’, Hauser & Wirth, London (with Louise Bourgeois) (2011). In 2008 Emin held her first major retrospective ‘Tracey Emin 20 Years’ at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which subsequently toured to Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Malaga (2008) and Kunstmuseum Bern (2009). In 2007 Emin represented Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale and was made a Royal Academician. In 2011 she was made Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools, London. She lives and works in London.

Photos: He Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea, Tracey Emin at Turner Contemporary, installation view. Image courtesy of Stephen White

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