Tracey Emin, Good Body (2014), all images courtesy White Cube Bermondsey
On view at White Cube Bermondsey, London is a new exhibition by English artist (and YBA member) Tracey Emin. Entitled The Last Great Adventure is You, the show will be her first at White Cube in five years, and will remain on view through November 16th.
Tracey Emin, I Feel You Coming (2014)
True to her candid style of working, Emin’s exhibition is reflective in tone and more complex than any other body of work she has ever made. The works required several years’ development, and many of the paintings are the result of obliteration and reapplication over several layers, made throughout a period of two years.  The title of the exhibition, The Last Great Adventure is You is written in neon as a reference to Emin’s “other†– however, as she herself has described, over the two year period since she began creating this body of work, she realized that the “You†is more a reflection of the self (herself) than an audience or single viewer.  Continuing the artist’s ongoing self-reflection and introspection, the works here embrace the intersections of memory, emotion and time.
Tracey Emin, I Love You (2014)
Throughout, Emin’s notions of the body are transferred to objects, animals and text.  Grotto (2014) is a cave-like chamber giving shelter to a solitary figure “as artist proxy,†while the muscular form of Bird (2014) is both graceful and sturdy.  Also displayed are a series of bronze bas relief plaques portraying amorphous figures, focusing on the contrast between light and shadow.  As a whole, the works emphasize temporal passages, respecting Time as a tool and a major factor in the developing aesthetic she has achieved.
Tracey Emin, The Last Great Adventure is You (Installation View)
Emin was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 for Every Part of Me’s Bleeding, which also represented her first solo exhibition in the US, held at Lehmann Maupin Gallery. In 2007, she represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and in 2008 through 2009 her first major retrospective, 20 Years, traveled through Europe after opening at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh. Emin is one of the first female professors at the Royal Academy, where she teaches Drawing.
The Last Great Adventure is You opened on October 8th and will remain on view at White Cube Bermondsey in London through November 16, 2014.
Tracey Emin, The Last Great Adventure is You (Installation View)
Tracey Emin, The Last Great Adventure is You (Installation View)
Tracey Emin, The Last Great Adventure is You (2014)
— E. Baker
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [White Cube]
