Tracey Emin
Angel Without You
December 4, 2013–March 9, 2014
Museum of Contemporary Art
770 NE 125th Street
North Miami, FL 33161
T +1 305 893 6211
The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) kicks off Art Basel Miami Beach 2013 with the opening of Tracey Emin: Angel Without You, the first American museum exhibition dedicated to the acclaimed British artist. On view December 4, 2013, through March 9, 2014, Tracey Emin: Angel Without You is the first-ever exhibition to focus on Emin’s use of neon, a medium that has played an essential role in the development of her practice. Organized by MOCA as part of its Knight Exhibition Series, Tracey Emin: Angel Without You comprises over 60 works and spans almost two decades.
Tracey Emin: Angel Without You highlights the artist’s longstanding relationship with MOCA, which became the first American museum to purchase Emin’s work when it acquired her seminal video Why I Never Became a Dancer in 1998. The video is included in the exhibition, along with Emin’s most notable neon works, including a new large-scale neon created for MOCA’s courtyard that inspires the exhibition’s title.
Transcribed from the artist’s own handwriting, Emin’s neons are frequently inspired by the subject of love, in all its poignant and sometimes painful complexity. Emin chooses to substitute pronouns for individual names in works such as Love is What You Want (2011), I can feel your smile (2005), or You Forgot to Kiss My Soul (2001), so that the phrases can be read as an instance of Emin addressing herself, her viewer, her lover, or even God. Other works, such as Nothing is Real (2012), are figurative sculpture created from contiguous neon tubing.
Related initiatives
In support of the museum, Emin has created five neon sculptures to be sold at auction by Phillips in November. The new series, titled Loving (2013), transcribe the artist’s handwriting into five vibrant colors. Four of the works are being offered at a live auction and special reception hosted by Phillips in New York on Wednesday, November 6. The fifth work, Loving (pink), is being offered in the Phillips Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 15.
A comprehensive book on Emin’s neons, also titled Angel Without You, is being published by Skira Rizzoli in tandem with MOCA’s exhibition, with essays by exhibition curator Bonnie Clearwater and contemporary artist and writer Gary Indiana.
A special microsite (traceyemin.mocanomi.org) exploring Tracey Emin and her practice has been created to support the exhibition. Funding for the site was provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
In conjunction with the launch of Art Basel Miami Beach, MOCA and Fontainebleau Miami Beach commissioned Emin to create a line of limited-edition works that will be available for purchase at the MOCA Shop and at Fontainebleau’s Studio Shop. These items include beach towels, flip-flop sandals, and T-shirts that display images of Emin’s neon sculptures, including Kiss me Kiss me Cover my Body in Love (2010) and I Kiss You (2004).
Exhibition organization and credits
Tracey Emin: Angel Without You is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and curated by Bonnie Clearwater.
The exhibition was generously made possible by an endowment to MOCA established by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and has been sponsored by: Phillips, Ethel & W. George Kennedy Family Foundation, Inc. in Memory of Martin Nash, and David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation. Additional support has been provided by Funding Arts Network.
