Grayson Perry

View Grayson Perry’s works featured on Ceramics Now Magazine

Grayson Perry (born in 1960) is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. He works in several media. Perry’s vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance, e.g. child abuse and sado-masochism. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as “Claire”, his female alter-ego, often appear. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003 for his ceramics, receiving the prize dressed as Claire.

Perry’s work refers to several ceramic traditions, including Greek pottery and folk art. He has said, “I like the whole iconography of pottery. It hasn’t got any big pretensions to being great public works of art, and no matter how brash a statement I make, on a pot it will always have certain humility… For me the shape has to be classical invisible: then you’ve got a base that people can understand”. His vessels are made by coiling, a traditional method. Most have a complex surface employing many techniques, including “glazing, incision, embossing, and the use of photographic transfers”, which requires several firings. To some he adds sprigs, little relief sculptures stuck to the surface. The high degree of skill required by his ceramics and their complexity distances them from craft pottery. It has been said that these methods are not used for decorative effect but to give meaning. Perry challenges the idea, implicit in the craft tradition, that pottery is merely decorative or utilitarian and cannot express ideas.

As well as ceramics, Grayson Perry has worked in printmaking, drawing, embroidery and other textile work, film and performance. He has written a graphic novel, Cycle of Violence.

Grayson Perry’s C.V. (resume) – View his works

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

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2004 – Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2004 – Collection Intervention, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives
2002 – Guerilla Tactics, Barbican Art Gallery, London,
2002 – Guerilla Tactics, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2000 – Sensation, Laurent Delaye Gallery,
1996-7 – Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London
1994 – Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London
1994 – Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris
1991-2 – 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

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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
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,
1997-90 – 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 –
1993-95 – The Raw and the Cooked, Barbican Art Gallery, London and touring to Museum of
1993-95 – Modern Art, Oxford, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea, Shigarake Ceramic Cultural
1993-95 – Park, Japan, Museum of Dunkirk
1992 – Fine Cannibals, Oldham Art Gallery and touring to University of Lancaster, Stockport
1992 – 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
1983 – Ian Birksted Gallery, London
1981-82 – Young Contemporaries, ICA, London