Grayson Perry (born 1960) is an English artist, best known for his ceramics. He has also worked in other forms, including drawing and embroidery, and has written a graphic novel, Cycle of Violence.
Perry was born in Chelmsford in Essex. He studied fine art at Portsmouth Polytechnic and took evening classes in pottery.
Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours. The subjects tackled by the decoration is often at odds with its superficially attractive and genteel nature: child abuse (in Wešve Found the Body of your Child, 2000) and sadomasochism sometimes feature, among other comments on social and sexual practices. There is often a strong autobiographical element.
Images of Perry himself also frequently feature in his work. Sometimes it is his cross-dressing alter ego Claire who appears. Mother of all Battles (1996), for example, is a photograph depicting Claire holding a gun and wearing a dress in the style of Eastern European folk dress embroidered with images of war.
Perry won the 2003 Turner Prize.
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