A model of a Margate rollercoaster is at the centre of the exhibition

The exhibition, called When I Think About Sex, includes four gouache water colour self-portraits of herself naked.

It is the first time the Kent-born artist has used paint in gallery works since leaving art school 16 years ago.

The exhibition, at the White Cube gallery in east London, has the model of a rollercoaster in her Margate home town as its centrepiece.

When I think about sex it makes me realise how alone I feel Tracey Emin

"If anyone has been to Margate, there's Dreamland and there's a scenic railway which is Grade II listed and it is one of the most beautiful structures in the whole universe," she said.

"I constantly have dreams about it - memories of it."

Her film Top Spot, about six teenage girls growing up in Margate, was given an 18 certificate because of a suicide attempt scene.

Emin is famous for her unmade bed and tent containing the names of all the people she has ever slept with.

"When I think about sex... it makes me realise just how alone I feel," she says of the new exhibition, which opens on Friday.

"The idea of actually holding, touching - feeling a breath, knowing the smell of someone - and the fear of life."

She is 42 and single but said on Thursday the idea of falling in love was not so strange.

But she was not talking about romance with wine, flowers and chocolates.

"We're talking about passionate romance, a meeting of minds," she said.