40 Facts About Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foibles".

Grayson Perry has made a number of documentary television programmes and has curated exhibitions.

Grayson Perry has published two autobiographies, Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl and The Descent of Man, written and illustrated a graphic novel, Cycle of Violence, written a book about art, Playing to the Gallery, and published his illustrated Sketchbooks.

Grayson Perry has had solo exhibitions at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan.

Grayson Perry's work is held in the permanent collections of the British Council and Arts Council, Crafts Council, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tate and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Grayson Perry was interviewed about the win and resulting press in Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World.

Grayson Perry did an art foundation course at Braintree College of Further Education from 1978 to 1979, followed by a BA in fine art at Portsmouth College of Art and Design, graduating in 1982.

Grayson Perry had an interest in film and exhibited his first piece of pottery at a New Contemporaries show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1980.

Grayson Perry was estranged from his mother; when she died in 2016, he did not attend her funeral.

Grayson Perry is a supporter of the Labour Party and has designed works of art to raise funds for the party.

In September 2015, Grayson Perry endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.

Grayson Perry returned to his mother and stepfather at Great Bardfield in Essex.

Grayson Perry has designed many of Claire's outfits but fashion students at Central Saint Martins Art College in London take part in an annual competition to design new dresses for Claire.

An exhibition, Making Himself Claire: Grayson Perry's Dresses, was held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, from November 2017 to February 2018.

Grayson Perry has written a graphic novel, Cycle of Violence.

Grayson Perry's work refers to several ceramic traditions, including Greek pottery and folk art.

Grayson Perry's vessels are made by coiling, a traditional method.

Grayson Perry combines various techniques as a "guerrilla tactic", using the approachable medium of pottery to provoke thought.

Grayson Perry created the 15m x 3m The Walthamstow Tapestry in 2009.

Grayson Perry produced a pair of large-scale tapestries for A House for Essex, called The Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope in 2015.

In 2015 the external work was completed on a holiday home in Wrabness, Essex, created by Grayson Perry working with Fashion Architecture Taste.

Grayson Perry has contributed ceramic sculptures, modelled on Irish Sheelanagigs, which celebrate her as a kind of latter-day earth mother while the delivery driver's moped has even been repurposed as a chandelier suspended above the double-height living room.

Grayson Perry made a variety of artwork used inside the house, depicting Julie Cope's life.

Grayson Perry wrote an essay, "The Ballad of Julie Cope" and created a series of black and white woodcuts, Six Snapshots of Julie.

Grayson Perry released the series in a signed colour edition of 68.

In 2005, Grayson Perry presented a Channel 4 documentary, Why Men Wear Frocks, in which he examined transvestism and masculinity at the start of the 21st century.

Grayson Perry talked about his own life as a transvestite and the effect it had on him and his family, frankly discussing its difficulties and pleasures.

Grayson Perry was the subject of a The South Bank Show episode in 2006 and the subject of an Imagine documentary broadcast in November 2011.

In 2018, Grayson Perry explored Rites of Passage in a four-part documentary series on Channel 4.

The documentary series focused on death, marriage, birth, and coming of age as Grayson Perry compared the way people in the UK dealt with these themes compared to others around the world.

Each episode culminated in Grayson Perry helping those in the UK to create ceremonies that were appropriate to their own situations.

Grayson Perry crossed the US on a motorbike, exploring its biggest fault lines, from race to class and identity.

In 2025, Grayson Perry participated in the sixth series of The Masked Singer as "Kingfisher".

Grayson Perry was an arts correspondent for The Times, writing a weekly column until October 2007.

Grayson Perry expanded the lectures into a book, Playing to the Gallery: Helping Contemporary Art in its Struggle to Be Understood.

Grayson Perry guest edited an issue of New Statesman in 2014, entitled "The Great White Male Issue".

In 2017 Grayson Perry gave the inaugural Orwell Lecture in the North for The Orwell Foundation, entitled "I've read all the academic texts on empathy".

In 2007 Grayson Perry curated an exhibition of art by prisoners and ex-offenders entitled Insider Art at the Institute of Contemporary Arts presented by the Koestler Trust, a charity that promotes art as rehabilitation in prisons, young offenders institutions and secure psychiatric units.

Grayson Perry described the artworks as "raw and all the more powerful for that".

Grayson Perry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to contemporary art and knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the arts.