“… my work has always had a guerilla tactic, a stealth tactic.  I want to make something that lives with the eye as a beautiful piece of art, but on closer inspection, a polemic or ideology will come out of it.”  

Grayson Perry's work offers endless surprises, touching us with its satire, sadness, anger, humor and hurt.

Upon winning the prestigious Turner prize in 2003, Grayson Perry commented “It’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner!”  First given in 1984 – it is awarded by the Tate Modern in London to a British artist under 50 for an outstanding exhibition of work in the previous 12 months.  Its aim is to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art.  Perry himself promotes public discussion…

Meet his alter ego Claire.   A regular at art scene parties, she is unforgettable – vulnerable, sweet, precious and impractical.  In her girly party dresses, Claire seems to revel in the fact that she is not the stereotypical cool, fashion-conscious modern artist.  In much of her work there is a sense of a childhood, lost forever, that we struggle to regain.  The work features pictures of his family, images of masculine stereotypes (never lived up to) and memories of rural decay.  Another consistent theme has been poking fun at “boring cool people” in the art world and the banality of society as a whole.

Born in Chelmsford
Lives and works in London
 

EDUCATION
Braintree College of Further Education, Art Foundation Course
Portsmouth Polytechnic, Fine Art BA
 

AWARDS
            2003 Turner Prize
 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008   My Civilisation, Mudam, Luxembourg
2008   Unpopular Culture (curated by Grayson Perry, touring exhibition), de            la Warr Pavilion
2007   My Civilisation, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,     Kanazawa
2006   The Charms of Lincolnshire, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2006   The Charms of Lincolnshire, The Collection, Lincoln
2006   Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
2005   Galleria Il Capricorno, Venice
2004   Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2004   Collection Intervention, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives
2002   Guerilla Tactics, Barbican Art Gallery, London, Sept 21 - Nov 3
2002   Guerilla Tactics, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam May 18 - Aug 25
2000   Fig-1, London
2000   Sensation, Laurent Delaye Gallery, London
1996-97 Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
1994   Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
1994   Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris
1991-92 David Gill Gallery, London
1991   Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1990   Birch & Conran, London
1988   Birch & Conran, London
1987   Birch & Conran, London
1986   The Minories, Colchester, Essex
1985   James Birch Gallery, London
1984   James Birch Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008   Demons, Yarns and Tales, The Dairy, London
2008   Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger, American Folk   Art Museum,New York
2006   Designing Truth, Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Zentrum        Internationaler
            Skulptur, Duisburg
2006   The Compulsive Line: Etching 1900 to Now, Museum of Modern Art,   New York
2005   Reveal, Nottingham’s Contemporary Textiles, Nottingham Castle off           Maid Marian Way
2005   Fairy Tales Forever, ARoS, Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark
2005   Mixed-Up Childhood, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2004   A Secret History of Clay from Gauguin to Gormley, Tate Liverpool
2003   The Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London
2003   For the Record: Drawing Contemporary Life, Vancouver Art Gallery,             Vancouver
2003   Thatcher, The Blue Gallery, London
2001 –03 The East Wing Collection, Courtauld Institute, London
2001   Carts and Rafts, Camberwell College, London
2001-02 Sense of Occasion, MAC, Birmingham
2001   New Labour, Saatchi Gallery, London
2001   Sense of Occasion, Birmingham and other centres around UK until      2002
2001   La Altra Brittania Tecla Sala, Barcelona
2001   Self Portraya, Group show at Laurent Delaye Gallery, London
2000   Protest and Survive, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2000   British Art Show 5 curated by the Hayward Gallery touring to    Edinburgh (Scottish
            National Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Botanical Garden, City Art       Centre, Talbot             Rice
            Art Gallery, Stills Gallery, Fruit Market Gallery), Southampton    (Southampton City Art
            Gallery, John Hansard Gallery, Millais Gallery, Southampton    Institute), Cardiff
            (National Museum of Wales, Centre for Visual Arts, Chapter),   Birmingham
            (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery)
1999   Plate Show, Collins Gallery, Glasgow
1999   Contained Narrative, Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1999   Hydra Foundation, Greece
1999   541 Vases, Pots, Sculptures and Services, Stedelijk Museum,      Amsterdam
1999   Decadence, Crafts Council, London
1998-99 Over the Top, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, touring show
1998   Glazed Expressions, Orleans House
1997-98 Craft, Richard Salmon Gallery, London, Kettles Yard, Cambridge
1997-90 Objects of Our Time, Crafts Council, London, Edinburgh,        Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, American Crafts Museum, New York
1996-97 Hot Off The Press, Tullie House, Carlisle, Glasgow, Norwich,    Croydon Clock Tower, Crafts Council, London
1996   Indigo Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida
1996   Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1996   Philippe Rizzo Gallery, Paris
1993-95 The Raw and the Cooked, Barbican Art Gallery, London and           touring to Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery          Swansea, Shigarake  Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan, Museum of            Dunkirk
1992   Fine Cannibals, Oldham Art Gallery and touring to University of          Lancaster, Stockport Art Gallery, Warrington Museum and Art      Gallery
1991-92 Essex Ware, Chelmsford and tour to Konigsburg, Germany and Amiens, France
1990   Words and Volume, Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1989   Nishi Azabu Wall, Tokyo (commission by Nigel Coates)
1988   Read Stremmel Gallery, San Antonio
1986   Mandelzoon, Rome
1985   Gallozi e La Placa, New York
1985   Essex Artists, Epping Forest Museum and Minories, Colchester, Essex
1983   Ian Birksted Gallery, London10 – 6 = 8
1981-82 Young Contemporaries, ICA, London
 

CATALOGUES
2008   Unpopular Culture, De La Warr Pavilion, Hayward
2007   My Civilisation, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2006   Designing Truth, Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Zentrum        Internationaler Skulptur, Duisburg
2006   The Charms of Lincolnshire, The Colllection, Lincoln
2005   Fairy Tales Forever, Homage to HC Andersen, ARoS, Aarhus      Kunstmuseum, Denmark
2005   Mixed-Up Childhood, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2004   Grayson Perry, Lisa Jardine, Victoria Miro Gallery
2004   A Secret History of Clay from Gauguin to Gormley, Tate Publishing
2003   For the Record: Drawing Contemporary Life, Vancouver Art Gallery,             Vancouver
2002   Grayson Perry - Guerrilla Tactics, catalogue with essays by Louisa       Buck, Marjan Boot, Rudi Fuchs, Andrew Wilson, Stedelijk Museum,        Amsterdam