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Tracey Emin’s ‘A Second Life’ Opens at Tate Modern With 100-Work Career Survey

The retrospective centers her post‑2020 recovery to recast a tabloid-era persona as an enduring study of the female body.

Overview

  • The exhibition runs from February 27 to August 31, 2026 at Tate Modern in London.
  • More than 100 works across painting, video, textiles, neon, sculpture and installation chart four decades, with landmarks including My Bed (1998) and Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996).
  • Newly presented material includes graphic post‑surgery self‑portraits showing a stoma, the first public display of the quilt The Last of the Gold (2002) and recent bronzes such as Ascension (2024).
  • The show is co‑curated by Tate director Maria Balshaw with Alvin Li, and serves as Balshaw’s final major exhibition before she departs the institution at the end of March.
  • Early reviews call the display powerful and life‑affirming, noting a restrained presentation with low lighting, deep‑blue walls and minimal wall text, with My Bed expected to draw large crowds.