grayson perry tour review

The Big Review: Grayson Perry: Smash Hits at National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh ★★★★☆

The hugely popular english artist has, in this retrospective, set out his case as a chronicler of the british psyche.

Smash Hits spans Grayson Perry’s career covering subjects such as class and Britishness and features more than 80 works, including the ceramic piece The Grayson Perry Trophy Awarded to a Person with Good Taste (around 1992) Nick Mailer photography

When it comes to living British artists with popular appeal, they do not get much bigger than Grayson Perry. Crowds are currently booking by timed slot for his retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland (Royal Scottish Academy) in Edinburgh. The top ticket price of £19—perhaps a record in Scotland—is deterring no one. This critic, turning up first thing on a Sunday morning, hoping for a bit of peace and quiet, was disappointed.

Not disappointed by the show, however, which looks great. The spacious Georgian rooms, designed by William Henry Playfair in the 1820s, are at their best with big works in them and accommodate well a mixture of wall-based and free-standing pieces. Perry’s ceramics, sculptures, prints and large-scale tapestries could have been made for this space.

By coincidence, one of this summer’s other most popular exhibitions has also taken place north of the border: in Glasgow, visitors queued to see the Banksy survey Cut and Run at the city’s Gallery of Modern Art. The show was open until 11pm nightly, and till 5am at weekends, to accommodate different types of crowd.

Interestingly, the two exhibitions chose similar approaches. The commentary for each was created by the artist in a direct, confiding tone. In different ways, both artists prioritise commenting on the contemporary world in their work and have a subversive energy, although they have now, to varying degrees, been embraced by the mainstream.

One key difference is that Perry’s core subject is himself. It is hard to imagine Perry’s work without Grayson Perry—transvestite, TV personality, now Sir Grayson and self-proclaimed National Treasure (apparently, National Galleries of Scotland advised against this as a title for the show—after all, which nation?). He has worked closely with the curators Patrick Elliott and Tor Scott, and the interpretation, both in the exhibition and its catalogue, is in his voice. This show is determinedly not about art-historical evaluation. It is an artist telling his story of his work.

In the first room, which sets out the exhibition’s guiding principles, Perry’s presence is unignorable. The back wall is occupied by Reclining Artist (2017), a woodcut self-portrait of an androgynous, nude Perry in his studio, nearly three metres long. Next to that is the 2013 etching A Map of Days , which he describes as a “self-portrait as a walled town”. The making of maps, mind maps and self-portraits of different kinds runs throughout the show.

In fact, the largest work here, The Walthamstow Tapestry (2009), which is a gargantuan 15m long, is a kind of self-portrait. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and the Seven Ages of Man, it charts a journey from birth to death through consumer brands. The design references William Morris (born in Walthamstow) but is ambitious and inventive, a kind of medieval-modern. Perry has a magpie mind and references widely, but always owns his influences up front.

The decision to start working in tapestry after his Turner Prize win in 2003 was a key shift in Perry’s practice. Working in ceramics has practical limitations of scale, based on the size of a kiln. In tapestry— designed in Photoshop, digitally woven—he could make work as big as he wanted. It changed the way his exhibitions looked and hooked him in to a narrative form that suited what he wanted to do.

His pots, however, remain central to the practice, increasingly sophisticated in technique as the years go on. They could be his best work, as they are more intimate, sardonic, spiky and subversive than the tapestries. In ceramics, he takes a pop at middle-class voyeurs and art world hypocrisy, provoking his audience (“Are you an art lover or a cock teaser?”) and his collectors. He once titled a show Super Rich Interior Decoration , and the irony was not lost on him when collectors bought it all the more.

Crafty culture crafting

In 2011, Perry curated an exhibition at the British Museum, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman , with 135 objects from the collection and 30 works of his own. The cast-iron galleon he made as the title work for that show occupies pride of place here. It is hung with glass containers filled with liquid, representing the blood, sweat and tears of the unnamed craftspeople who made the precious artefacts of our culture. It feels as though it is with them that he allies himself most.

The other pivotal moment was when he made his first television documentary, 2005’s Why Men Wear Frocks , for Channel 4. As he went on to make programmes on Britishness, masculinity and class, his art developed a symbiotic relationship with his television work. The art sparked the TV, but the documentary work also fed back into his practice, making it more outward-looking, able to embrace bigger ideas.

In both art and television, he has a gift for speaking the language of ordinary people, for nailing cultural mores. In a large tapestry called Comfort Blanket (2014), he lists the things associated with Britishness that people might find comforting, from the Queen and the NHS to the Magna Carta and having a nice cup of tea. This is not a profound idea with hidden depths, but it does observe carefully and articulate precisely what people feel they already know.

His tapestry series on class, The Vanity of Small Differences (2012)—inspired by William Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress (1732-34)—is strongest in its detail, laying bear the foibles of the middle-class: an Aga, mid-century Modern furniture, organic jam. In a similar way, he skewers the 1970s in his A House for Essex series: the moustache, the orange Ford Capri. These are stereotypes, but it is more than that. His audience recognises it all instinctively. People feel seen.

The last room is about Englishness. Giving a tour to the media before the show opened, Perry suggested that having the exhibition in Scotland gave him some welcome distance to examine the subject. Central, here, is the new tapestry Sacred Tribal Artefact (2023), which shows an ageing patriarchal lion handing over his tattered English flag to a young woman. He describes it as “a heraldic depiction of an ancient country in a time of change”.

It should come as no surprise that this show is popular. It is colourful, fast-moving, visually impressive and occupies this grand, formal space with panache. It is not a show of hidden depths—what you get is what you see. However, if a retrospective is an opportunity to weigh up an artistic career, Perry’s tips the scales decisively, at least for this moment in time. What happens in the next few decades might be a different story. These works speak so clearly and specifically to this moment; I suspect that, for future generations, they will not be timeless masterpieces but—like the works that Perry explored in the British Museum—will need some translation in years to come.

What the other critics said

Smash Hits has divided the UK’s art writers. In The Times, Waldemar Januszczak praised the exhibition, particularly its ceramics, saying the show proved “you don’t have to be pious to be serious or ponderous to be deep” . Duncan Macmillan gave the show a five-star review in The Scotsman, particularly praising how it used the space , and comparing it to the Eduardo Paolozzi retrospective in the same rooms 40 years ago.

But Jonathan Jones was scathing in The Guardian, saying the art “relentlessly avoids poetry or depth” and accusing Perry of “throwing away his talent on the vanity of small amusements” .

Meanwhile, Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph described Perry’s referencing as “a hodgepodge of homage and imitation” .

• Grayson Perry: Smash Hits , National Galleries Scotland (Royal Scottish Academy), until 12 November

• Curators: Patrick Elliott with Tor Scott

Review: Grayson Perry’s joyous, contemplative retrospective ‘Smash Hits’

Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry’s ‘Smash Hits’ retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland (Royal Scottish Academy) is a colourful and provocative exhibition, diverse in media and subject matter. Chronicling a journey of self-understanding, identity-forming, and culture-observing, it navigates the line between the personal and the universal, with Perry endowing fictional characters and Gods with predicaments and traumas drawn from his own life experiences. Undeniably autobiographical, yet resonant with broader social issues, the show is simultaneously introspective while casting its gaze outward.

Gods and alter-egos

One of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition is the selection of fictional Gods, alter-egos, characters, and icons that Perry portrays with various issues, identities, and personas. The most prevalent is Perry’s childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles, who has been depicted almost countless times as a God.

In the first room of the exhibition, the viewer is confronted with a large red teddy bear on skyscraper stilts, wielding hand grenades and a gun. This tapestry, ‘Vote Alan Measles for God’, exemplifies the satirical tone of the exhibition: Perry takes the heavy starting points of Afghan war rugs and over-powerful politicians and twists them into a light-hearted, humorous, and aesthetically pleasing tapestry.

Our cultural and religious beliefs

In Alan’s casting as the Virgin Mary in ‘Alan Healing the Wound’, however, he becomes an icon we are almost expected to worship. The bronze cast of the teddy bear cradling a child is beautifully intricate and skilfully rendered, but also absurd in how convincing it is as a religious icon. Unlike the tapestry’s light-hearted mockery, this Alan icon feels eerily akin to actual religious objects. This perhaps asks the viewer to reflect on the fickle nature of human cultural and religious beliefs. In the exhibition’s caption for this piece, Perry admits that he elevated Alan Measles to a God-like icon because of his want for ready-to-go subject matter. This is one of the many moments in this exhibition where we are confronted head-on with the artist’s humanity; despite being so prolific and successful he still admits to the occasional block of inspiration.  

Photo 1 - Sir Grayson Perry. Sacred Tribal Artefact, 2023. Tapestry 200 x 350 cm78 3/4 x 137 3/4 in © Grayson Perry. Courtesy the artist, Paragon | Contemporary Editions Ltd and Victoria Miro; Photo 2 - Sir Grayson Perry.  Our Town, 2022. Etching109 x 161 cm42 ⅞ × 63 ⅜ in Edition of 68 plus 2 artist’s proofs © Grayson Perry. Courtesy the artist, Paragon | Contemporary Editions Ltd and Victoria Miro

Exploring class mobility through Tim Rakewell

Another character fated to live at the hands of Perry is Tim Rakewell. In one of the artist’s most well-known works, ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’, Tim is dragged through the trials of class mobility, working his way up the ranks until his overambition and foolish strive for commodity cause his downfall. The six tapestries are based on religious artworks from the Renaissance, a choice Perry made partially to give them a historical grounding, and partially, as he jokes in the exhibition’s audio guide, to mock the smugness middle-class viewers would feel upon recognising the Renaissance references.

The series takes over a room in the exhibition, immersing the viewer in Tim’s quasi-Renaissance rise and fall. The tapestries are in Perry’s signature colourful palette, peppered with cultural references. In them, Tim is placed in several character roles, the most poignant of them being Jesus Christ. In the first tapestry, baby Tim is held on his mother’s lap, reminiscent of the Virgin and Child, and he reaches for his mother’s phone. In the final tapestry, Tim lies dead in a gutter after crashing his car while speeding, held by a woman in a blue dress, mirroring Christ’s lamentation in Rogier van der Weyden’s work of the same name. At the bottom of the last tapestry is a smashed iPhone, replacing a memento mori skull. In making Tim Rakewell echo Christ, Perry establishes a universal order of events in the series of tapestries. Tim died at the hands of his greed, the work perhaps serving as a warning against overambition and hubris, while simultaneously mocking all stages of the English class system.

Grayson Perry Smash Hits. © Nick Mailer Photography

Modern Gods: ‘The Walthamstow Tapestry’

Also looking at commodity and greed is Perry’s largest work, ‘The Walthamstow Tapestry.’ This 15-metre by 3-metre tapestry tells the story of a life through brands. Each brand is given a persona of sorts, Perry treating them as ‘modern Gods’. Perry claims the personifications of the brands are nonsense, and many of them do feel absurd (McVities biscuits making offerings to the devil, for example), but some are strangely fitting. Pret a Manger, the yuppie sandwich paradise, is personified as a teenager on a skateboard; Birdseye, the frozen food brand that helps make a quick meal, becomes a mum pushing a pram; Dyson, the technology company, is shown as a woman riding a sleek mobility scooter. These Gods remind the viewer of the prevalence of brands in all stages of our life, while also perhaps being a morbid comment by Perry on the abandonment of actual gods in favour of commodities.

Grayson Perry God as a God himself 

In fact, perhaps the most prominent false God in this exhibition is Grayson Perry himself. Perry assumed a God-like role in prescribing fates and identities to these made-up characters and bringing inanimate brands and teddy bears to life. Perry has created his own fantastical world, full of historical references, vibrant colours, and a penchant for mocking anyone and everyone. ‘Smash Hits’ exemplifies the playfulness of Perry’s practice while also revealing his tendency to address childhood trauma, class qualms, and struggles with modernity by inflicting fictional gods, characters, and alter-egos with similar struggles. This emotional detachment from the work renders it much more universal, making for an exhibition that is both contemplative and joyous.

Grayson Perry ‘Smash Hits’ is currently on at the National Galleries of Scotland (Scottish Royal Academy) in Edinburgh and runs until November 12, 2023.

Eager to explore other exhibitions around the world? Check out Fotografiskas , a behind the scenes look at the grand opening of Berlin’s new Photography Museum.

Credits for the Main photo: © Grayson Perry Smash Hits. Photo by Nick Mailer Photography

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Grayson Perry: Julie Cope’s Grand Tour review — weaving a tale with wit and ingenuity

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★★★★☆ We’ve all met a woman like Julie Cope — intelligent, sparky, but late to education; a bit knocked about by life. In Grayson Perry’s touring exhibition from the Crafts Council, she’s an entirely relatable everywoman. This set of four large-scale tapestries is appropriately displayed — along with their accompanying audio, The Ballad of Julie Cope , read by Perry — at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh’s home of tapestry weaving. They tell of the life of this fictional woman, whose character and history came out of the 2015 collaboration between Perry and Fat Architecture , A House for Essex .

The second part of this exhibition has a section devoted to the house, a commission from Living Architecture and a sort of secular temple (Perry has always been interested in religious architecture) to the memory of a typical Essex woman. There’s a rather moving film showing the reactionary objections made at the planning stage (“more suited to the Middle or Far East” is one weirdly phrased bit of opposition) followed by the joy of the eventual response. “It’s very raw, it’s like you’ve watched us all individually . . . sorry . . .” one woman breaks off tearfully.

Yet it’s the first half, the gorgeous tapestries, that you’re here to see. Using an eye-wateringly expensive medium more often employed to herald the achievements of mythical, royal and biblical figures, Perry tells of a baby born in 1953 during a flood to a childhood “like National Service”; an attractive young woman married early to a possessive man (“Dave”, obviously), pregnant “for want of a plan” . . . then furious when she finds a woman’s comb and feels a fool for thinking he would be different.

We watch Julie pull herself together, move north with her kids, find her feet, self-educate, meet a new man, “Rob Curzon, 40, plumpish, with all the/ Easy graces of the upper middle class”, who adores her, supports her, then mourns her desperately when she is killed in a freak accident aged 61. A House for Essex is his Taj Mahal.

The tapestries weave the tale with wit and ingenuity — there are a couple of iPads on which you can explore the narrative symbolism of their packed surfaces: a hairbrush indicating Dave’s infidelity; a crossroads sign when Julie must make a choice; the cat’s name, Pam, indicating the other woman; a note on a bunch of flowers: “I am so sorry x D.” It’s clever, knowing and deeply touching. The exhibition, part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, runs to November 2

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Grayson Perry: Smash Hits review

The biggest exhibition of the artist’s 40-year career has opened in Edinburgh

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Grayson Perry is arguably the most famous artist working in Britain today, said BBC Scotland . Since the 1980s, he has gone “from taking pottery evening classes to winning the Turner Prize”, and presenting programmes on Channel 4. He is now held in high esteem by both the art establishment and the general public, and this summer has seen the self-titled “Transvestite Potter” scale new heights. In June, he was knighted. Now, “the biggest exhibition of his 40-year career” has opened in Edinburgh.

Spotlight on Reynolds review: a treasure trove of portraiture Tate Modern: A World in Common

It is the first retrospective he has ever had in the UK, featuring more than 80 of his best-known works: pots, tapestries, prints and sculptures. Among the highlights is his “astonishing” 15-metre “Walthamstow Tapestry”, said Duncan Macmillan in The Scotsman . It’s an ironic epic, which tells the story of the seven ages of man, the journey from birth to death, “through the lens of shopping”. Perry’s work reflects on all sorts of “issues”: masculinity, class, Englishness. But it’s all done with a deft satirical touch and a “truly original vision”. The Royal Scottish Academy is hosting the show for its neighbour, the National Galleries of Scotland; I haven’t seen its halls “so well-filled by a single living artist” for many decades.

Perry is “a manifestly talented artist who can draw detailed, precise, complex images”, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian . Sadly, he chooses to throw away this talent on “the vanity of small amusements”. Much here relates directly to his unhappy childhood in 1960s Essex, during which he created “a private universe” around a teddy bear called Alan Measles. Alan is a recurring figure here: we see him cast in bronze, cradling the artist’s “inner child”; posing as a knight; and being “transported in a glass carriage on the back of Perry’s motorbike”. If there’s any charm to this, it soon wears thin. It is all so “very English”, Perry’s whimsy, and his ironic deflation of anything that looks too serious. He has chosen to be “a middle-class entertainer”, a suburban pop artist. Ultimately, the “lack of passion and courage” here is “depressing”.

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For all its “intense intricacy”, Perry’s style of drawing is “distinctly adolescent”, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph . He “abhors empty space”, and his art is an ambiguity-free “hodgepodge of homage and imitation”, in which he updates masterpieces such as Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress for contemporary audiences. His preferred aesthetic – “a sort of homespun, consciously clumsy finish” – seems mannered: “proficiency masquerading as ineptitude”. Yet he has one “superpower”: he is genuinely funny. Whether they are lampooning the art market or the puritanism of “social justice warriors”, his “filthy, puckish jugs, jars, vases, and urns” rarely fail to raise a laugh. This show demonstrates that while he may not be a great artist, he is unquestionably “a great satirist”.

National Galleries of Scotland (Royal Scottish Academy), Edinburgh (0131-624 6200). Until 12 November; nationalgalleries.org

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GRAYSON PERRY: A SHOW ALL ABOUT YOU to Tour in 2023

Tickets go on general sale on 18 November

FANE are delighted to announce that contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster Grayson Perry will be embarking on a UK tour for 2023.

The tour will begin in Basingstoke on 15th September 2023 and conclude at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 28th November. Priority tickets go on sale at 10am Thursday 17th November with general on sale taking place Friday 18th November.

Grayson Perry: A show All About you questions what makes you, you? Is there a part deep inside of you that no one understands? Have you found your tribe or are you a unique human being? Or is it more complicated than that? In the last few decades a combination of individualism, the internet and the culture war has, for many of us, brought our feelings about our own and other people's identity to the fore.

Grayson Perry, white, male, heterosexual, able bodied, English, southerner, baby boomer and member of the establishment takes a mischievous look at the nature of identity in his new show that will make you laugh, shudder, and reassess who you really are. It's one not to be missed!

Grayson Perry is an English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foibles".

In 2003, he became famous as the first ceramic artist to win the Turner Prize and was awarded a CBE in 2014. In 2020 he became the first British Artist to win the Erasmus Prize since Henry Moore . Along with his art, Grayson has written and presented documentaries. The first one was for Channel 4 entitled Why Men Wear Frocks, an adaptation from the book, Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl in which he examined transvestism and masculinity in the 21st century. Grayson spoke candidly about his own experiences and the effect it has had on him and his family. The documentary received a Royal Television Society Award for Best Network Production.

In 2012 his C4 series, All in the Best Possible Taste received a BAFTA for Specialist Factional Television. Grayson's C4 programme Who Are You? led to the accompanying artwork from the series being housed in the National Portrait Gallery, a first for the Gallery. The programme was awarded Best Arts Programme at The Royal Television Society Programme Awards and Specialist Factual at the BAFTAs, that year Grayson was also awarded Documentary Presenter of the Year at The Grierson Awards.

In 2013 he delivered the BBC Reith Lectures, another first for him as the first artist to do so.

His publishing ranges from an autobiography The Descent of Man (2016) and a graphic novel Cycle of Violence (2012). Playing to the Gallery (2014) derived from The Reith Lectures along with his illustrated Sketchbooks (2016).Grayson took to Twitter to navigate post-Brexit Britain in his own inimitable style by inviting C4 viewers to help create his next major work - The two pots featured in the series Grayson Perry: What Britain Wants and also as apart of Grayson's most important British solo exhibition, 'The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever', which was held at the Serpentine Gallery in June 2017. In late 2017, Grayson won Best Documentary Presenter at The Grierson Awards for the third time following the broadcast of Grayson Perry: All Man for C4. Summer of 2018 saw Grayson co-ordinate the 250th Celebration of The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Along with fellow artists, Grayson handpicked over 1,300 works to make up the biggest, brightest and most colourful exhibition under the theme of Art Made Now. Rites of Passage, again for C4, was aired in 2018. This explored the ceremonies and rituals surrounding some of life's landmark events; Birth, Coming of Age, Marriage and Death. Them and Us, Grayson's first UK one man show, toured later that year discussing 'cultural divisions' within the world we live in today. He was invited to tour Australia late 2019 and early 2020.

Throughout the global pandemic, Grayson made it his mission to unleash creative collectively and unite the nation through art, turning the camera back on the viewer with the challenge: have a go yourself. Grayson's Art Club aired each week from his studio - taking the country with him as he created new art works throughout lockdown. The art created was displayed in a public exhibition, that chronicled the changing moods of Britain and provided a record of the historic times we're living through. The programme won the Arts and Presenter's Award at the 2021 RTS Programme Awards, shortly after it returned for a second series. Grayson Perry's Big American Road Trip, also aired in 2021, which saw him explore the changing landscape of Trump's America; from race to class and identity.

Grayson Perry said: "I can't wait to head back out on the road next autumn with my brand-new show - which is all about you! I will be visiting almost every corner of the country in my biggest tour yet. Don't be a stranger. See you there."

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Julie Cope’s Grand Tour: The Story of a Life by Grayson Perry

Dovecot studios presents the first solo exhibition in scotland of turner prize winner and renowned ceramicist and tapestry artist grayson perry..

Bursting with life and colour is the first Scotland-based solo exhibition of Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry . Renowned and celebrated for his employment of traditional craft making techniques, predominantly in the form of ceramics and tapestry making, it seems fitting that Grayson Perry’s first solo show in Scotland is hosted by Dovecot Studios . The exhibition presents Julie Cope’s Grand Tour: The Story of Life by Grayson Perry , which explores the fictional life of Perry’s character, Julie Cope.

Designed to represent the anyone and everyone, Julie Cope embodies the celebrations and pitfalls of an average life. Often finding that Essex, his home town, is portrayed in a certain light, Perry wanted the exhibition to explore an alternative Essex, one more representative of everyday reality and local activities. Told through large sprawling tapestries, prints and a ballad spoken by Perry, the life of Julie Cope is one of love, spirals, hope and tragedy.

The exhibition pulsates with liveliness; present not only in the incredibly impressive and large-scale tapestries, but also in the minute details such as the yellow and pink cabling that present the ballad which is played on loop. Despite the large scale of the tapestries, their slanting layouts on canvas-like frames create an intimate atmosphere in the space. The walls are lined with pink and it very much feels as if Dovecot has been transformed into Grayson Perry’s ultimate interior. The ballad sounding with his voice draws the viewer in more closely, allowing for a multifaceted viewing experience.

The threads of the tapestries boast an incredibly impressive blend of details, each documenting and presenting various stages in Julie Cope’s life. Perry’s voice rings resolutely through the speakers, taking the viewer on a journey into his imagination. The exhibition is a vibrant invitation into the life of Julie Cope and is a life that speaks to everyone in some way or another. Through her narrative, Perry has succeeded in capturing the essence of life and human fragility. Documenting her journey from her birth in the Canvey Island Floods of 1953 to her tragic untimely death, Perry takes the viewer on a spiralling journey of his fictitious character.

Often employing collaborative working methods within his practice, Perry’s tapestries have been constructed in collaboration with Flanders Tapestries . Designed by the artist utilising an interactive pen display, the compositions were then translated into codes for a digital loom. Alongside this, Perry has collaborated with FAT Architecture for Living Architecture to design A House for Essex . This sees the creation of his most ambitious artwork so far – a real life house. Perry created several whimsical versions of the house, drawing heavily on influences from India, in particular the Taj Mahal, as well as secular chapels.

Within Dovecot Studios, his collaborations with the architectural firms are explored and displayed in a museum-like layout, giving the viewer an insight into both his working methods and the process of construction. Ceramic tiles which adorn the house, architectural renders and films of Perry during his site visits all harbour and allow the viewer to engage more closely with both Grayson Perry and his fictional lady, Julie Cope.

Culture | TV

Grayson Perry’s Full English on Channel 4 review: a typically incisive look at what it means to be English

It’s no use saying “Don’t mention the War!” We’re less than five minutes into the first episode of Grayson Perry ’s new Channel 4 series when the Second World War rears its tiresome head in a conversation with Dover ’s leading self-appointed migrant -spotter, Jeremy Davis, because of course he’s called Jeremy, and of course he’s obsessed with the war.

If you were expecting cosiness from Grayson Perry’s Full English, a road trip through England with a white van man (his name is Kirk, he’s from Yorkshire) on a foray into what it means to be English, then look away now. This first episode, set around the South East, kicks us off right in the thick of the country’s thorniest debate. Perry opens the series in Dover, where nearly 50,000 people a year are landing after undertaking the treacherous, terrifying trip across the Channel.

Jeremy, who is a wedding DJ with a whispy white mane and a beady necklace, and who you couldn’t invent if you tried, is deeply concerned by all this. He has set up a Twitter feed, and makes propaganda videos to alert people to the arrivals, whom he calls “illegals without IDs”.

“We don’t know who these people are,” he frets. “Something terrible is going to happen.”

They’re looking for a home, Perry says, mildly (though do I detect a hint of frustration?). “They’ve got a home, they’re looking for a better home,” is Jeremy’s quick retort, which I suppose is technically true but doesn’t really tell the full story, particularly if they come from, I dunno, Syria, or Afghanistan.

What exactly is he defending? “It’s history,” comes the wiffly response; “My family – they’re all military – they all fought for this country, they all love this country; it’s that, I suppose,” which is startlingly vague considering how dedicated Jeremy is to his unformed cause. As Perry says, Jeremy’s notion of this country is one of “a bygone England, one that bears little resemblance to the multicultural country we live in today”.

Perry, whose previous TV series have looked at class through the prism of taste; ideas of masculinity; and rites of passage across cultures, always has an art angle on his investigations. This time, he is collecting items from the people he encounters which, for them, exemplify what it means to be English. Jeremy’s is not a surprise – a silver salver that belonged to an ancestor who defended the port of Lisbon during, you guessed it, the Second World War. He thinks the notional similarity between what they do is “poetic”, though I’d use another p word.

Anyway, it’s a great start to a show that comes at the concept of who we are from unexpected angles. Perry’s second interviewee, Jay, is a data analyst and football fan from Lambeth, one of London’s most culturally diverse boroughs; a black man who is a veteran of more than 100 England matches, and whose crystalline, articulate discussion of Englishness is so far from Jeremy’s flabby waffle as to make you want to weep with national pride.

His England is that of the now. “It’s important to me that my version of England is seen as being English,” he tells Perry over a pint in Munich, where England are playing, surrounded by genially pissed up footie fans. These include two of his white mates who look as though this is literally the first time they’ve ever thought about this, which might well be the case. His chosen object is an England flag, dedicated to his late pal Jimmy, a man from a different background and different generation, who became his best mate through their shared passion for football.

And I haven’t even told you about the British Druid Order, whose gentle but steely dedication to their softcore paganism (up in popularity by 25 per cent in recent years, though still, it appears, a majority middle-aged religion) is a delight to behold as they take Perry, dressed up as a deer (and this is very much his bag, you feel), along on one of their rituals to honour the spirits of nature.

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They’re a practical, make-do sort of bunch – the guy dressed as a corvid retains his blazer, which sort of feels in keeping with the role in a Neil Gaiman-ish sort of way, and I particularly loved the willow lady, whose green floaty dress almost certainly had a previous life at a summer wedding.

They too have thought hard about what it means to be part of this England, with its deep, gnarly folklore and dark magic. The order’s founder, Greywolf (otherwise know as Philip) can trace his ancestry to 20 years after the Domesday Book – and he doesn’t give a monkey’s. He doesn’t really believe in national borders, and calls nationalism “an abomination”.

“After the last Ice Age, there were no people here,” he points out. “People have been arriving ever since, and they’re still arriving. As far as I’m concerned, if you arrived here yesterday on a small boat across the Channel, you’re every bit as English as I am.” Jeremy would have a fit. The contrast between these two weirdy, unbeardy, long-haired old men couldn’t be more stark.

Perry is an old hand at this now, and it shows – perhaps the reason for bringing Kirk along as his sidekick. It’s a slightly odd pairing, and isn’t quite working one episode in – the moments where Perry tells Kirk his impressions of what he’s seen, which he might have addressed straight to the camera before, feel a tad contrived and ever so slightly condescending.

I hope Kirk, who seems slightly bemused by the whole thing, will come into his own as the series progresses, perhaps in episode three, when the pair get onto his home turf of the North. This feels bittier than previous series, but perhaps that’s because we’re now so used to Perry’s genially incisive modus operandi.

This is a promising start though. Perry ends by joining a friendly group in the world’s most polite protest (they have a procession, climb over a fence, and sit under an oak they’re not meant to sit under, listening to folk songs) against the limiting of access for the public to vast swathes of England. They highlight the dichotomy of the English obsession with hierarchy – which allows the private ownership of insanely large amounts of hill and dale – sitting uncomfortably alongside our deep conviction that our nationhood is tied up with the land.

Their last protest, they tell Perry, was on the land of the Duke of Bedford, who owns an estate of roughly 52,000 acres (more than twice the size of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the World Land Trust tells me). “What can he be doing that he can possibly require that much privacy?” one asks, which seems like a reasonable question when you put it like that.

The next episode, trailed at the end of the first, will take Perry and Kirk to the Midlands, to a non-white England that will, I hope, open up ideas of what this country is beyond nostalgia for half-remembered, half-understood pasts. “When do you feel English?” he asks a South Asian family over dinner. “When I go to India!” comes the reply, and they all hoot with laughter.

Grayson Perry’s Full English starts on Channel 4 on Thursday January 26 at 9pm

GRAYSON PERRY | A SHOW ALL ABOUT YOU

Artist, writer and broadcaster Grayson Perry is going on a national tour which will see him take to the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for his last show. His Show All About You will ask: what makes you, you? Perry will take a mischievous look at the nature of identity – something that’s certainly been brought to the front of our minds in recent years – in ways that’ll make you laugh and/or shudder. Tickets are on sale now, so snap ’em up while you can.

Tues 28th November 2023 Catherine St, London WC2B 5JF fane.co.uk

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‘This is the post-lockdown party we all need’ – Grayson’s Art Club review

Manchester Art Gallery Grayson Perry challenged ‘any oik, prole or citizen’ to unleash their lockdown creativity. The best of the 10,000 entries, from polished pros to frontline workers, are full of fun, resilience – and cats

T o give Grayson’s Art Club less than five stars would be to take the artistic aspirations of the UK, screw them up and stomp on them. This exhibition – which unites the lockdown creativity of the public with acclaimed artists and skilful celebrities – already endured one setback, when it was cancelled on the eve of opening due to additional Covid restrictions being imposed. Seven months later, it doesn’t need a grumpy art critic, cynically sniffing around. Wonderfully, there’s no room for cynicism in this celebratory show that is the post-lockdown party we all need.

In his book Playing to the Gallery , Grayson Perry writes: “I firmly believe that anyone is eligible to enjoy art or become an artist – any oik, any prole, any citizen that has a vision that they want to share.” When coronavirus hit the UK, Perry decided to challenge the “oiks” to live up to his vision by inviting the public to contribute to his weekly art club, which aired every Friday on Channel 4 . It was a hit, and the show received nearly 10,000 entries and spawned a second series. The works that most struck a chord with Perry and his special guests are now on display at Manchester Art Gallery, an institution that was founded on similar principles to Perry’s club: to enable the city’s inhabitants to grow in creativity, imagination, health and productivity.

Each episode followed a different theme – portraits, animals, fantasy, view from my window, home and Britain – and the exhibition is arranged accordingly, placing novices next to the likes of Jeremy Deller, David Shrigley and Sir Antony Gormley. But when it came to artistic inspiration everyone it seems was tapping into similar experiences. Martin Parr was shooting photographs of people queueing, while Jacqueline Taylor was painting her neighbours lining the streets clapping; Maggi Hambling was detailing the resilience of magnolias, while Julia Gardner was observing the crab apple tree in her garden.

It is interesting to get a glimpse at Parr or Perry’s reactions to the pandemic, but it is the “outsider artist” work that really captivates. The professional artists are just that – very polished and considered. Whereas Clare, Anita, Seamus and the 50 plus other non-professional artists were creating a gut reaction to endless hours indoors. It is relatable and strangely nostalgic. Memories of the simplicity of the first lockdown flood back as I peer into Vinny Montag and Kimvi Nguyen’s curtain-adorned fridge, remembering the delicious meals that were the highlight of the day. Clare Wilks’s tropical garden scene encapsulates those early, hazy afternoons outdoors, while collages by Anthony King, Simran and Mandish Khebbal and Sue Dibben capture the joyous chaos of families forced to commune all day, every day.

The struggles are here too. We see pensive, anxious eyes in the portraits of Lucilda Goulden-White, Henry Mawcat and Ania Newland. Lana Turner’s figures with blurred-out faces and stern, pointing fingers depict the increased judgment and antagonism strangers felt towards one another. Death is never far away; creeping in between the masked, socially distanced figures in Hannah Grace Deller’s photographs, shrivelling under Sue and Adrian Dent’s radiotherapy mask and rising up as a dragon in the Singh Twins’ lightbox.

Grayson and Philippa Perry are the spiritual guides in the public’s creative enlightenment, taking the lead by producing their own works in response to every topic. Philippa is a skilled ceramicist, imbuing her creations with a playfulness and whimsy – transforming her family into cats or sculpting a homage to A Place in the Sun.

Grayson’s pieces punctuate the show with his signature incisive observation and humour. Protective Spirit Alan is the most arresting. Built with ceramic, metal, stones and found objects, the sculpture is a heftier recreation of Perry’s teddy bear and his “personal deity”. With a set of razor-sharp teeth, bottle-cap eyes and spiky debris crown, Alan casts an intimidating shadow. He is a relic from the past and an apocalyptic creature from the future; his timelessness is a monument to endurance and resilience.

The same could be said of this entire exhibition. Behind the loud colours, exquisite detail and thoughtful craftsmanship, there are stories of survival. We learn of Georgia Rusch’s fight for British citizenship, Emma Major’s readjustment to blindness and Jenny Brennan’s search for home. In addition to the personal tales, there is the grand narrative that art – creating, making, building – enables us to go on. The finest example of this is Alex Robinson’s marvellous cast of Fimo figurines. Robinson is on the autistic spectrum, and during lockdown the weekly creation of four figures offered him relaxation and regular routine. For every person that made art in this exhibition – whether professional, famous or working on the frontline – making art was the life source to get from one day to the next. Gavin Williamson, take note.

Grayson’s Art Club is at Manchester Art Gallery until 31 October.

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ART REVIEW: Grayson Perry: Julie Cope’s Grand Tour @ Dovecot Studios

It is hard to believe that Julie Cope’s Grand Tour at Dovecot Studios is Grayson Perry’s first solo exhibition in Scotland. Perry is perhaps one of the most well-known British artists amongst the general public and his work seduces by its eccentricity. He, together with his alter-ego Claire, are not afraid of going against codes of contemporary art – their work is visually loud with bold colours and a clear narrative.

The exhibition focusses on the story of Julie Cope, a fictional character born in 1953 in Essex, told through the media of tapestry, ballad and architecture. The first room is composed of a balancing act between Perry’s eloquent voice, reading the ballad out loud, and three kaleidoscopic large-scale tapestries. Both tell the same story of Julie’s life, unfolding chronologically, from left to right. Both reference media with strong historical connotations that are being confronted to contemporary culture. However, what makes this work extraordinary, is in fact the ordinariness of Julie Cope’s story. Perry describes her as ‘a working-class woman who went with the default settings of her generation’. Her life is full of ups and downs, a broken marriage and a second love, all ending in a sudden but somewhat uneventful death, making her the most unlikely character to be immortalised in such a grandeur. She is the epitome of the working class, usually ignored and excluded from the art discourse. Nonetheless, there she is, glorified just like saints and royals.

Perry is not only shifting perspectives – he also plays with the viewer. He has infused his work with subtle references: imitating medieval craftsmen and -women, he plays with iconography by adding personal touches, such as his bear-like mascotte Alan Measles or a cryptic signature composed of a ‘W’ and an anchor. The viewer is expected to actively engage with the visual codes, to spend time. In fact, time seems to be as a central theme – tapestries and ballads are made to last and so does The Life of Julie Cope , produced in 2015 and still touring. In a fast paced world of contemporary art, the work feels a little dated, but therefore it becomes even more contemporary, taking a stance for durability. De facto, it is already a continuation of another project – A House for Essex , an ambitious architectural collaboration presented in the second part of the exhibition. Built together with FAT Architecture for Living Architecture, A House for Essex is a unique construction, that takes inspiration from Orthodox churches, whilst being covered in tiles with reliefs of safety pins alternating with a repeating bas-relief of a female Celtic figure.

Perry’s art is all about unexpected amalgamations. It opens up the gallery space through storytelling and its relatable characters help us to unlearn our expectations.

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Grayson Perry announces tour for 2023

FANE are delighted to announce that contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster  Grayson Perry  will be embarking on a UK tour for 2023. The tour will begin in Basingstoke on 15 th  September 2023 and conclude at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 28 th  November. Priority tickets go on sale at 10am Thursday 17 th  November with general on sale taking place Friday 18 th  November. Tickets are available via:

www.fane.co.uk/grayson-perry

Grayson Perry: A show All About you questions what makes you, you? Is there a part deep inside of you that no one understands? Have you found your tribe or are you a unique human being? Or is it more complicated than that? In the last few decades a combination of individualism, the internet and the culture war has, for many of us, brought our feelings about our own and other people’s identity to the fore.

Grayson Perry, white, male, heterosexual, able bodied, English, southerner, baby boomer and member of the establishment takes a mischievous look at the nature of identity in his new show that will make you laugh, shudder, and reassess who you really are. It’s one not to be missed!

Grayson Perry is an English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene and for dissecting British “prejudices, fashions and foibles”.

In 2003, he became famous as the first ceramic artist to win the Turner Prize and was awarded a CBE in 2014. In 2020 he became the first British Artist to win the Erasmus Prize since Henry Moore. Along with his art, Grayson has written and presented documentaries. The first one was for Channel 4 entitled Why Men Wear Frocks, an adaptation from the book, Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl in which he examined transvestism and masculinity in the 21st century. Grayson spoke candidly about his own experiences and the effect it has had on him and his family. The documentary received a Royal Television Society Award for Best Network Production.

In 2012 his C4 series, All in the Best Possible Taste received a BAFTA for Specialist Factional Television. Grayson’s C4 programme Who Are You? led to the accompanying artwork from the series being housed in the National Portrait Gallery, a first for the Gallery. The programme was awarded Best Arts Programme at The Royal Television Society Programme Awards and Specialist Factual at the BAFTAs, that year Grayson was also awarded Documentary Presenter of the Year at The Grierson Awards.

Throughout the global pandemic, Grayson made it his mission to unleash creative collectively and unite the nation through art, turning the camera back on the viewer with the challenge: have a go yourself. Grayson’s Art Club aired each week from his studio – taking the country with him as he created new art works throughout lockdown. The art created was displayed in a public exhibition, that chronicled the changing moods of Britain and provided a record of the historic times we’re living through. The programme won the Arts and Presenter’s Award at the 2021 RTS Programme Awards, shortly after it returned for a second series. Grayson Perry’s Big American Road Trip, also aired in 2021, which saw him explore the changing landscape of Trump’s America; from race to class and identity.

Grayson Perry said:  “I can’t wait to head back out on the road next autumn with my brand-new show – which is all about you! I will be visiting almost every corner of the country in my biggest tour yet. Don’t be a stranger. See you there.”

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