When Tracey Emin first emerged in the 1990s, she became one of the most polarising artists of her generation. Fiercely autobiographical, unapologetically raw, she blurred the line between art and life, drawing audiences into work that was at once deeply personal and uncomfortably public. Alongside peers such as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and the other so-called Young British Artists, Emin transformed the British art scene and became a household name.
In 2026, Emin’s reputation will be cemented once more with the largest exhibition of her career. Tracey Emin: A Second Life opens at Tate Modern on 26 February and runs through the summer. With over 90 works spanning four decades, it will showcase her extraordinary breadth - from her infamous early installations to her recent large-scale paintings reflecting on illness, survival and rebirth. For collectors - and especially those within the Andipa family - this retrospective offers a rare chance to revisit why Emin remains a defining voice of contemporary British art, and why her practice continues to matter today.
Andipa has long championed the YBAs, particularly Damien Hirst, whose work we place into major collections worldwide. Like Hirst, Emin belongs to that generation of artists who exploded onto the London scene in the 1990s with a radical energy that shook the establishment. While Hirst confronted mortality through formaldehyde animals and cabinets of medicine, Emin confronted vulnerability, sexuality and the female body with equally uncompromising directness. Both artists share a willingness to strip back pretence and confront the viewer with fundamental truths about life and death. For collectors of YBAs, Emin’s work is not a side note but an essential counterpart — a balancing voice within that era’s artistic conversation.
Emin’s early works are legendary. The tent embroidered with the names of Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 and the Turner Prize-shortlisted My Bed challenged notions of what art could be, sparking outrage and acclaim in equal measure. These works did more than scandalise: they articulated personal trauma in a way that resonated far beyond Emin herself. Her art has always been about honesty. Where Hirst’s works universalise mortality, Emin’s offer a mirror of emotional truth. This duality — spectacle and intimacy, objectivity and confession — is what has made the YBAs enduringly relevant to serious collectors.
The forthcoming Tate exhibition will not only revisit those infamous early works but also foreground Emin’s recent output. In 2020, after surviving aggressive cancer, she returned with renewed focus on painting. These new canvases are quieter, meditative, yet still charged with intensity. They represent survival and resilience — a transformation that gives new depth to her long career. A Second Life is more than a retrospective; it is a story of an artist who has turned pain into power, confession into legacy. For collectors, it is a reminder that Emin is not just a provocateur of the past, but a continuing voice of substance in the present.
At Andipa, we guide collectors towards works that not only hold market value but also cultural weight. Emin’s art does both. Her position within the YBAs - a movement we know intimately through our work with Damien Hirst and his contemporaries - ensures her relevance to any collection of contemporary British art. More importantly, Emin embodies the qualities that make art endure: authenticity, vulnerability, innovation. Her works - whether a neon declaration of love, a raw monoprint, or a monumental painting - are not simply objects but extensions of a lived experience that resonates universally. For our collectors who have invested in Hirst, Bacon, or Warhol, Emin’s work sits naturally within that lineage: artists who redefined what it means to make art in their time, who challenged conventions, and who created works that remain as compelling today as when they were made.
The opening of Tracey Emin: A Second Life at Tate Modern marks a landmark moment, not only for the artist but for contemporary British art as a whole. It will reposition Emin not merely as the enfant terrible of the 1990s but as a survivor and innovator whose work continues to shape the cultural landscape. For collectors, this is an opportunity to re-evaluate her place in art history and to consider how her works enrich a collection already grounded in the greats of modern and contemporary art. At Andipa, we believe Emin’s art - like that of her fellow YBA, Damien Hirst -speaks to the collector who values honesty, resilience and the courage to confront life head-on.
Tracey Emin has never hidden behind her art. She has lived within it - through heartbreak, survival, and transformation. As Tate Modern prepares to honour her career with its most ambitious retrospective to date, it is clear that Emin is not simply a provocateur of the past but an essential voice for the present. For collectors, her work offers more than ownership; it offers connection - to a movement, to an era, and to the enduring power of truth in art.
If you are considering consigning Tracey Emin artworks to Andipa, please contact us at enquiries@andipa.com or call +44 (0)207 589 2371. We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming you to Andipa.
