Grayson Perry | Artist

Grayson Perry - Artist

Grayson Perry, b 1960, is an English artist known mainly for his ceramic vases and for his cross-dressing. Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003.

A year ago I enjoyed his exhibition of tapestries The Vanity of Small Differences at Manchester Art Gallery. It consists of six tapestries (see below!) that tell the story of Tim Rakewell, inspired by A Rake's Progress by William Hogarth, which in eight paintings tells the story of Tom Rakewell, a young man who inherits a fortune from his miserly father, spends it all on fashionable pursuits and gambling, marries for money, gambles away a second fortune, goes to debtors prison and dies in a madhouse.

Some of the characters, incidents and objects Grayson Perry had encountered whilst filming All in the Best Possible Taste for Channel 4. The tapestries tell a story of class mobility. Perry thinks that nothing has such a strong influence on our aesthetic taste as the social class we grow up in.

Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry in front of one of his tapestries

Decorated Vase

We enjoyed his Who are you? series on Channel 4, giving his attention to identity as he creates portraits - from tapestries to sculptures and pots - of diverse individuals who are all trying to define who they are. This inspired us at the end December 2014 to attend his Who are you? exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In 2015 Channel 4 sent his three part series All men about different men's masculinity. Also in 2015 his "fairy" house in Essex opened to the public.

Find out more about Grayson Perry on YouTube!

Julie's House

"Comfort Blanket"
from Who are You?

The Vanity of Small Differences

The Adoration of the Cage Fighters	The Agony in the Car Park	Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close
The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal	The Upper Class at Bay	Lamentation