Grayson Perry
British, 1960-
You Are Here, 2011
Glazed ceramic
17 1/8 in x 15 3/8"
Collection of Fotene Demoulas and Tom Cote
COMMENTS
Grayson Perry, winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, uses the seductive qualities of ceramics 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. Covered with scraffito drawings, handwritten and stencilled texts, photographic transfers and rich glazes, Perry's detailed pots are deeply alluring. Only when we are up close do we start to absorb narratives that might allude to dark subjects such as environmental disaster or child abuse, and even then the narrative flow can be hard to discern.
The disparity between form and content and the relationship between the pots and the images that decorate 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.
Born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1960, Grayson Perry lives and works in London. Perry was the winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, and has had major solo exhibitions at The British Museum (2011), Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2008), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2007), Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2006), Barbican Art Gallery, London (2002) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2002). Perry has also curated three exhibitions, most recently the critically acclaimed Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum, London (2011-2012) Unpopular Culture, de la Warr Pavilion (then touring) (2008) and The Charms of Lincolnshire, The Collection, Lincoln (2006). In 2012 Perry created a series of six new tapestries entitled The Vanity of Small Differences on display at Victoria Miro gallery. The making of these tapestries was chronicled in a 3-part documentary on Channel 4 exploring taste and class within the UK.
- "Grayson Perry", Victoria Miro, Web, 14 October 2004
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
BORN 1960, CHELMSFORD, ENGLAND
LIVES AND WORKS IN LONDON
Grayson Perry allies himself with venerable craftsmen throughout history. His ceramic pots and tapestries merge traditional craft techniques with contemporary subject matter. Both tragic and comical, his imagery often emerges from personal experience, including issues of class distinction still prevalent in British society.
I Was an Angry Working-Class Man pairs floral designs with images of bikers, drug needles, and a self-portrait of the artist as a transvestite in a frilly dress. Here, Perry questions stereotypes of masculinity while emphasizing that identity is as much formed by societal expectations as personal desire. For Pot Based on Twenty-Year-Old Collage, the artist revisited his early collage work to express his ongoing critique of family life and sexual relationships.
In You Are Here, the artist depicts a museum-going public voicing clichéd reasons for attending an exhibition, thereby questioning his own status as an artist. And in the tapestry Map of Truths and Beliefs, Perry combines allusions to historical pilgrimage sites with the plan of the British Museum, suggesting connections between visiting a museum and practicing religious ritual.
Labour and Wait, 2013