Grayson Perry: Super Rich Interior Decoration
For his first solo exhibition at the gallery since 2012 – and first exhibition at Victoria Miro Mayfair – Grayson Perry presents new work including pots, sculpture, large-scale prints, a tapestry and a carpet.
In these new works, the artist casts an anthropological eye on the heady collision of art, money, power and desire. The assertion of identity through cultural or consumer choices and what these reveal about us, perhaps unintentionally, is one theme of a show that broaches the slippery concepts of meaning and significance – what can be authentically experienced or simply acquired. New pots include Shopping for Meaning, adorned with images of the artist – in wig, headscarf and various outfits – standing in front of Mayfair’s designer stores, their logos visible behind him. Searching for Authenticity collects together symbols of rebellion and rites of passage – the leather jacket, the beard, the CND banner – as if they were a catalogue of lifestyle choices. Fittingly slender in form, Thin Woman with Painting depicts an immaculate contemporary art patron at home with her collection which, on close inspection, includes works remarkably similar to Perry’s own: a pot bearing the names of philosophers and theorists, and a tapestry of an urban landscape featuring words and phrases such as ‘appalling wifi’ and ‘cultural desert’.
Very Expensive Abstract Painting is a tapestry that, bearing some of the hallmarks of twentieth-century abstraction, is also a map of London – traversed by the familiar serpentine form of the Thames and containing words that appear to chime with their corresponding locations (the area to the south of the city simply reads: ‘organic’). Polarities of wealth are brought into focus in a carpet, titled Don’t Look Down, which, at its centre, depicts a homeless person in crucifix-like pose bordered by a frieze containing images of domestic architecture.
For the first time, this exhibition sees Perry working with material from the photographers Richard Young and Martin Parr and Eleni Parousi. Celebrity photographer Young, whose work since the 1970s has chronicled the party-going glitterati, has provided the images for one pot. Given access to Parr’s archive, Perry has selected images of the well-heeled at leisure for Money on Holiday, a table lamp which also features the names of tax havens such as Panama, Cayman Islands and Isle of Man. Parousi’s photographs of Perry, in situ in Bond Street and Mount Street, feature on Shopping for Meaning.
During the making of the work Perry had in mind Nam June Paik’s famous quote that ‘the artist should always bite the hand that feeds him – but not too hard.’ While some of the works appear to goad the wealthiest in society, indeed the very people who might collect contemporary art, richness here might refer to a profusion of decoration and abundance of reference as much as affluence.
Perry has also produced a handbag in collaboration with Graeme Ellisdon, of Osprey London, which will be on view as part of the exhibition.
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Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur at The Wallace Collection
March 28 2025The largest contemporary exhibition ever held at the museum, Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur (28 March–26 October 2025) will include ceramics, tapestries and works on paper amongst others, displayed alongside some of the Wallace Collection’s masterpieces which helped inspire and shape Perry’s vision for this landmark exhibition.Read More -
Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur reviewed in The Times
March 26 2025★★★★ '“We look at art through the fractured and tinted lens of our own experience.” With this playful but thoughtful show, he liberates us to do just that.'Read More
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Grayson Perry talks to Geordie Greig at The Independent
March 22 2025‘My job is to trust my intuition and often it’s in your gut and in your body and in your emotions.’Read More -
Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone at Charleston in Lewes
September 23 2024Featuring textiles, ceramics and woodcuts, the exhibition (25 September 2024–2 March 2025) tells stories of home, asking questions about how those stories shape who we...Read More
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The Wallace Collection announces a major exhibition by Grayson Perry as part of its 2025 programme
September 19 2024On view 28 March–26 October 2025, to mark his 65th birthday, Perry will create and curate a new exhibition at the Wallace Collection, a museum...Read More -
Work by Grayson Perry and Paula Rego included in Freedom From Torture Art Auction
October 24 2023Freedom from Torture works with survivors of torture to rebuild their lives in the UK. Learn more about the auction here . The silent auction...Read More
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The Art Newspaper reviews Grayson Perry: Smash Hits
September 4 2023★★★★ ‘Perry’s ceramics, sculptures, prints and large-scale tapestries could have been made for this space.’Read More -
The Scotsman reviews Grayson Perry: Smash Hits
July 24 2023★★★★★ Grayson Perry has written an intriguing essay for the catalogue of his exhibition, Smash Hits, and in it he remarks “Despite wariness of making...Read More
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On view in Edinburgh – Grayson Perry: Smash Hits
July 22 2023The National Galleries of Scotland announce a solo exhibition by Grayson Perry in summer 2023. On view will be subversive pots, brilliantly intricate prints, elaborate...Read More -
Grayson Perry receives a knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours list 2023
January 4 2023Perry has been made a Knight Bachelor for services to the arts in the King’s New Year Honours list 2023. Watch an interview with the...Read More