Sir Grayson Perry | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts

Sir Grayson Perry RA (b. 1960)

Summer Exhibition 2018

Perry studied at Braintree College of Further Education from 1978 to 1979 and graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1982. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003. Perry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to contemporary art. In 2023 he was awarded a Knighthood (Knight Bachelor) for services to the Arts in the King’s New Year Honours.

He works in a variety of mediums but is best known as a ceramicist. There is a dissonance between the conventional forms of his vessels and the depictions that adorn them. He uses imagery and text to chronicle social concerns, his own formative experiences and to tell the story of his alter ego, Claire. The tone of his narratives is psychologically complex and often caustic. Although he uses traditional methods to make his pots, he employs a range of techniques, such as embossing and photographic transfers, to create intricate, animated surfaces.

Profile

Royal Academician

Printmaker

Born: 1960 in Chelmsford, England, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 15 March 2011

Gender: Male

Preferred media: Ceramics

Works by Sir Grayson Perry in the RA Collection

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Works associated with Sir Grayson Perry in the RA Collection

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Grayson Perry R.A.

Giclee print. camera: nikon d300.

- Summer Exhibition 2018
  
  In our 250th year, Grayson Perry RA took the helm to coordinate the world’s longest running and largest open-submission show: the Summer Exhibition.
  
  Famous as the world’s largest open submission show, the Summer Exhibition delivers a panorama of art in all mediums, a remarkable mixture of emerging artists and household names, and more.
  
  Find out more

My studio life

Welcome to the studio

“Welcome to my brand new Islington studio! We used to walk past here 20 years ago and think, ‘Wow, this would make a wonderful studio’. And now I’ve got it.”

© Eamonn McCabe

A building with history

“The building was originally used as a watch factory, and you can still see signs of the belt-driven machinery. The next company here made decorative plaster moulding for theatres, and it was finally a small metal workshop. After that, it was used as a film set. With pale green, flaking paint, it was perfect for period drama murder scenes…”

© Eamonn McCabe

Cashmere socks

“I do feel slightly embarrassed here. It feels like one of those YBA studios: they always have perfect white industrial studios. I’m not complaining though. Moving here has been the biggest change in my life – my work rate has gone up hugely. In Walthamstow I had to go home by four as it was simply too cold. Even here though, I swear by cashmere socks from November all the way through to about April.”

© Eamonn McCabe

A sad day for Walthamstow

“We had to hire cranes and knock down the front door to get these kilns out of my last studio. A man was walking past pushing a buggy and asked what was going on. So I told him I was moving to a new studio. ‘Oh, it’s a sad day for Walthamstow,’ he said. Artists are the shock troops of gentrification, and Walthamstow is well on the way. ‘My work here is done,’ I told him!”

© Eamonn McCabe

Alan Measles, kiln god

“The woman on top of the red kiln is my kiln goddess. Alan Measles got co-opted to look after the second one.”

© Eamonn McCabe

"Everything is contingent"

“For the tapestries, I start with a full-scale drawing and then use this to design them. I work with a production company called Factum Arte, who sent their Photoshop expert here for two days to give me a crash course. What’s brilliant about it is that everything is contingent. Unlike real things, you can always go back to the beginning and start again.”

© Eamonn McCabe

My Bible

“This is Kate Fox’s Watching the English. I love this book, it’s my Bible. Every time I meet a foreigner thinking of moving here I tell them to read it.”

© Eamonn McCabe

The Essex House

“I’m always referring to lots of different sources – my books are primary in my work. The green tile in front of these ones is a sketch for the Essex House that I’m doing with FAT and Living Architecture. They’re going to be giant!”

© Eamonn McCabe

Producing repeat images

“These terracotta stamps on the second shelf down are used for logos and other repeat images on my pottery. One of the first I made was a stamp of a hell’s angel. I’ve got thousands of them now.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Up close

“I use the magnifying glass to carve them.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Fragments

“That’s one of my Tate Modern reliquaries hanging from the beams – it’s a piece of broken pot. You can buy it from their gift shop if you like.”

© Eamonn McCabe

This old thing?

“That cushion is ancient and full of pottery dust. There’s something of the little old lady in her conservatory about it.”

© Eamonn McCabe

"Bikes have always been part of my identity."

“I’ve never owned a car. Bikes have always been part of my identity. Trannies do tend to overcompensate by doing very macho stuff. I’m getting to an age now where I’m thinking of buying a car – probably a red sports car, something exotic and embarrassing. ”

© Eamonn McCabe

"Like the skin of my younger body"

“These leathers are the first thing I ever had specially made, when I was 29. I look at them now like the skin of my younger body. I could probably squeeze into them now, like some kind of middle-aged sausage.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Never knowingly understated

“I bought this from Rachel Choi’s student fashion show. It weighs a tonne: clearly, an awful lot of artificial fibres have gone into it! It might be the most bonkers thing I own.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Gallery

Grayson Perry RA, Artist's Robe, 2004.

Embroidered silk brocade, leather, printed linen and ceramic buttons. 179 x 70 cm. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry.

Grayson Perry RA, The Rosetta Vase, 2011.

Glazed ceramic. Height 78.5 cm, diameter 40.7 cm. British Museum Collection. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry.

Grayson Perry RA, World Leaders Attend the Marriage of Alan Measles and Claire Perry, 2009.

52 cm x 32 cm. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry.

Grayson Perry RA, World Leaders Attend the Marriage of Alan Measles and Claire Perry, 2009.

Glazed ceramic. 52 cm x 32 cm. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry.

Grayson Perry RA, Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close, 2012.

Wool, cotton, acrylic, polyester and silk tapestry. 200 x 400 cm. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry.

Grayson Perry RA, Map of Truths and Beliefs, 2011.

Wool and cotton tapestry woven by Flanders Tapestries from files prepared at Factum Arte. 290 x 690 cm. Courtesy the Artist and Paragon Press, London © Grayson Perry.

Selected CV

Last updated 2018

- Recent solo exhibitions
  
  2016
  Paper Tiger Whisky Soap Theatre (Dada Nice), Villa Arson, Nice
  
  2018
  Grayson Perry, KIASMA, Helskinki; touring to Monnaie de Paris, Paris
  Grayson Perry: Making Meaning, The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida
  The Vanity of Small Differences, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
  
  2017
  The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!, Serpentine Gallery, London; touring to Arnolfini, Bristol
  Making Himself Claire: Grayson Perry’s Dresses, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
  Grayson Perry: The Life of Julie Cope, Firstsite Gallery, Colchester
  
  2016
  Hold Your Beliefs Lightly, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; touring to ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus
  
  2015
  Provincial Punk, Turner Contemporary, Margate
  Small Differences, Pera Museum, Istanbul
  My Pretty Little Art Career, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
  
  2014
  Who Are You?, National Portrait Gallery, London
  Walthamstow Tapestry, Winchester Discovery Centre
- Selected collections
  
  Arts Council Collection, London
  Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
  Brighton & Hove Museums
  British Council Collection, London
  The British Library (Map Library), London
  British Museum, London
  Chelmsford Museum, Essex
  Crafts Council Collection, London
  Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
  Government Art Collection, London
  House of Commons Collection, London
  Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery)
  Manchester City Galleries
  Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
  The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  Tate, London
  Victoria & Albert Museum, London
  Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut
- Awards
  
  2017
  Royal Television Society Programme Award (Best Presenter and Best Arts Programme)
  Evening Standard Contemporary Art Prize
  Grierson Award (Best Presenter)
  
  2016
  Political Studies Association Award
  RIBA Honorary Fellowship
  GQ Men / Writer of the Year Award
  
  2015
  Chancellor of the University of the Arts, London
  Trustee of the British Museum
  BAFTA (Best Specialist Factual)
  
  2013
  BAFTA (Best Specialist Factual)
  Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
  
  2003
  Turner Prize winner

- Art Sales at the RA
  
  The Island Of Bad Art
  
  Winner of 2003’s Turner Prize, Grayson Perry RA takes a swipe at the art establishment. His etching depicts an ‘island of bad art’ resembling Venice, home to the celebrated contemporary art biennale.
  
  British-born Perry’s etching presents the viewer with a 16th-century style map. And creates the same dissonance between conventional form and personal message the artist achieves in his best-known medium, ceramics. The print is available to buy through Art Sales at the RA.
  
  Buy now