When Tracey Emin’s much-anticipated solo exhibition opens at Palazzo Strozzi on March 16, it will mark not only a significant moment for contemporary art but also a luminous addition to Florence’s cultural landscape. Emin, the British artist renowned for transforming raw emotion into provocative, deeply personal works, will see her presence extend beyond the museum walls, as Hotel Savoy, a Rocco Forte hotel, unveils My Forgotten Heart, a striking neon installation by the artist.
Emin, whose work has been showcased at institutions including MoMA, Tate Britain, and the Venice Biennale, is known for her unflinching ability to translate personal experience into universal sentiment. Palazzo Strozzi’s exhibition, running through July 20, 2025, represents a landmark cultural moment for Florence, a city steeped in Renaissance tradition yet increasingly embracing contemporary dialogue.
To celebrate the occasion, Hotel Savoy, in collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, is offering a curated suite of immersive experiences for art lovers. Guests staying in the hotel’s exclusive Artists Suite will gain privileged access to the world of Emin, through a selection of thoughtfully designed encounters.
Among the most coveted is the Renaissance Reverie experience, available from March 13 to 15, offering an elite preview of the exhibition before the official opening. This includes private access to the show, invitations to an intimate gala dinner in honor of the launch, and entry to an exclusive VIP party celebrating the exhibition.
For those wishing to explore Emin’s work in a more intimate setting, Hotel Savoy extends the opportunity for private, after-hours tours of the exhibition, led by Arturo Galansino, Director General of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, or a member of his curatorial team. These bespoke experiences, designed to connect guests with the emotional depth of Emin’s work, ensure an encounter with art that is as personal as it is deep.
At the intersection of luxury and artistic innovation, Florence continues to reaffirm its role as a cultural capital. With Emin’s neon poetry illuminating the city, and Palazzo Strozzi’s halls bearing witness to her raw, introspective vision, the Renaissance city finds itself once again at the forefront of artistic evolution.
About Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin DBE was born in 1963 in Croydon, London, and grew up in the seaside town of Margate. Her work spans drawings, paintings, tapestries, embroidery, film, bronze sculptures, and neon signs. The artist draws on her own life to inform her work, referencing deeply intimate experiences from her sexual history, abuse, and abortion to gender, relationships, and, most recently, her cancer and disability. In 1999 she attracted huge publicity when she was nominated for the Turner Prize and exhibited My Bed at Tate Gallery, London.
The work, which had been made the year before as the result of a period of severe emotional flux, features the artist’s own unmade bed surrounded by personal items and other detritus, such as condoms, blood-stained underwear, empty bottles of alcohol, cigarette buds. From there, Emin’s career continued to grow: in 2007 she represented the United Kingdom at the 52nd Venice Biennale, in 2011 she was made the Royal Academy’s Professor of Drawing, one of the first two female professors in the history of the institution.
Today Emin enjoys full institutional recognition. She has recently opened the Tracey Karima Emin (TKE) Studios in Margate, a professional artist’s studios entirely subsidized by her, with an additional free, studio-based, art school programme called Tracey Emin Artist Residency (TEAR). In 2024, she was honoured with a Damehood in the King’s Birthday Honours for her services to art.
©2025 Palazzo Strozzi
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