Tracey Emin recovering in Thailand after her ‘intestine nearly exploded’

Renowned British artist Tracey Emin is recovering in Thailand after her small intestine “nearly exploded” due to complications after an operation.

Emin, one of Britain’s best-known living artists, has battled cancer and undergone major surgery in recent years. On Sunday she shared on Instagram that she has been “very unwell” and felt she had used “another one of my nine lives”.

Related: ‘Before cancer I was really unhappy’: Tracey Emin on the joy of founding her own art school

The 60-year-old was recently in Australia as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Triennial , and was on her way back to the UK via Thailand when she fell ill.

“Not cancer but horrible complications with my intestines brought on by an infection, scar tissue and made a million times worse by flying,” she wrote.

“My small intestine nearly exploded. Luckily for me I was in Thailand on my way back from Australia, so I spent a few days in a very good hospital and now recovering in luxury,” she wrote, thanking a hospital and luxury hotel on the Thai island of Phuket.

She said she was “now on a special diet and will fly when I’m well enough”.

A leading figure in the Young British Artists movement, Emin made her name with eye-opening, often sexually provocative works, along with her disarmingly frank public persona.

Her installation My Bed – an unmade bed surrounded by intimate debris including empty vodka bottles, cigarette packets and condoms – caused a sensation in Britain when it was unveiled in 1998.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report