Grayson Perry
Born in Chelmsford. Lives and works in London, UK.
2002 Guerilla Tactics, Barbican Art Gallery, London
2003 The Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London
2003 Turner Prize
2004 Collection Intervention, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives
2004 A Secret History of Clay from Gauguin to Gormley, Tate Liverpool
2005 Fairy Tales Forever, ARoS, Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark
2006 Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA
2008 My Civilisation, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
2008 Unpopular Culture (curated by Grayson Perry)
2009 British Subjects: Identity and Self-Fashioning 1967-2009, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York
2010 Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts
2010-11 Aware: Art Fashion Identity – GSK Contemporary 2010, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2011 Measuring the World – Heterotopias and Knowledge Spaces in Art, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
2011 Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, The British Museum, London
Grayson Perry: Visual Dialogues, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
2012 The Vanity of Small Differences, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2012 Tea with Nefertiti, Qatar Museums Authority, UAE
2013 Labour and Wait, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, US
Hand Made, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, NL
Grayson Perry uses the seductive qualities of ceramics, tapestry weaving and other art forms to make stealthy comments about societal injustices and hypocrisies, and to explore a variety of historical and contemporary themes. The beauty of his work is what draws us close. Only when we are up close do we start to absorb narratives that might allude to dark subjects, and even then the narrative flow can be hard to discern. The disparity between form and content and the relationship between the pots and tapestries and the images that decorate and are incorporated within them is perhaps the most challenging incongruity of Perry's work. Yet, beyond the initial shock of an apparently benign or conservative medium carrying challenging ideas, what keeps us drawn to the work is its variety. Perry is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing us in with wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as fear and anger. Autobiographical references - to the artist's childhood, his family and his transvestite alter ego Claire - can be read in tandem with debates about décor and decorum and the status of the artist versus that of the artisan, debates which Perry turns on their head.
The Walthamstow Tapestry explores the emotional resonance of brand names in our lives and our quasi-religious relationship to consumerism. Charting man's passage from birth to death, the tapestry is peppered with leading brands encountered along the way, from luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany to high street giants such as Marks and Spencer and IKEA come under Perry’s excoriating gaze in this cautionary and prophetic tale of modern day life. Stripped of their logos and thus much of their identity, the names run alongside (often incongruously) depictions of people going about their everyday lives: walking the dog, nursing children, skateboarding, hoovering, and, of course, shopping.
Inspired by antique batik fabrics from Malaysia as well as eastern European folk art this vast work provides a colourful, rich and complex visual journey across our contemporary landscape.