Tracey Emin. Sex and Solitude
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
From March 16th until July 20th, 2025
Celebrated British artist Tracey Emin DBE marks her first institutional solo show in Italy with her exhibition Sex and Solitude at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. On display is a selection of historic and recent works from paintings, drawings and film to photography, embroidery, appliqué, sculptures, and her infamous neon installations. As curated by Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the exhibition centres on passion, vulnerability and self-expression through 60 works, that span different moments of her career. Several artworks on view at Palazzo Strozzi are shown in Italy for the first time, including the new monumental bronze sculpture I Followed You to the End, installed in the Palazzo’s Renaissance courtyard, and the seminal installation Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, and these sit alongside plus specially created pieces for the exhibition.
opening image: Tracey Emin, Those who Suffer LOVE, 2009. Courtesy of the Artist and White Cube.
Private Collection c/o Xavier Hufkens Gallery.
ACAF Collection by Yashian Schauble, Melbourne.
Private Collection c/o Xavier Hufkens Gallery.
Typical of Emin, viewers are taken on an intensely personal yet universally resonant journey that reflects on the themes of the body and desire, after all, she is known for her candid, confessional approach to art; she conveys raw emotions and physical reactions from sexual passion to love, and anguish to melancholy. Within the exhibition, there are paintings such as It – didnt stop – I didnt stop and There was blood, which embody these honest, emotional forces, straddling figuration and abstraction through gestural mark-making and bold colours. These sit alongside her sculptures, which showcase the emotion in three-dimensional form, capturing the vulnerability and strength of the human body through their materiality and scale, as in All I want is you that expresses intimacy and introspection. Emin’s text-based adopt the same thinking and use succinct, explicit language that pulls in the viewer, cue her neon works, Those who Suffer Love and in embroidery or appliquéd blanket pieces such as I do not expect.
For further information palazzostrozzi.org.
