TRACEY EMIN FOR VENICE 2007

'I'm thrilled; it's a great honour and a fantastic challenge. I'm looking forward to it.' Tracey Emin

The British Council is delighted to announce that Tracey Emin has been selected to exhibit at the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007. The artist will produce new work specially for the British Pavilion.

Born in London in l963, but brought up in Margate, Emin's work draws with ineffable candour on her life and times. Using a wide variety of media - from needlework, photography and video to drawing, painting, sculpture and neon - Emin pricks pretensions and tells a story with a unique and increasingly compelling voice.

Shortlisted for the Turner Prize in l999, she has had several solo exhibitions in Europe, among them at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2002. The Venice Biennale will provide an opportunity to see new work by Emin following her recent highly acclaimed exhibition 'When I think about sex' (White Cube, London, 2005).

Tracey Emin follows in the footsteps of Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley and Rachel Whiteread to become the fourth woman to exhibit in the British Pavilion since 1950.

Director of British Council Visual Arts and Commissioner for the British Pavilion, Andrea Rose, said: ‘Tracey’s work goes from strength to strength. She’s a storyteller with an extraordinary ability to scratch away the surfaces to what lies below. This is a great moment to see her work in the context of the Venice Biennale, where her work will be shown in an international context and at a distance from the YBA generation with which she came to prominence’.