Grayson Perry is a Turner Prize-winning English contemporary artist, writer, and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries^[ as well as his observations of the contemporary art scene, and for dissecting British “prejudices, fashions and foibles“.  He is also one of the country’s most famous inhibited crossdressers.

His new exhibition currently touring the UK is The Vanity of Small Differences which tells the story of class mobility and the influence social class has on our aesthetic taste. Inspired by William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress the six tapestries,  chart the ‘class journey‘ made by young Tom Rakewell and include many of the characters, incidents, and objects Grayson Perry encountered on journeys through Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and The Cotswolds for the television series ‘All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’.

Perry is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing us in with wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as, at times, fear and anger. In his work, he tackles subjects that are universally human: identity, gender, social status, sexuality, religion. Autobiographical references – to the artist’s childhood, his family, and his transvestism – can be read in tandem with questions about décor and decorum, class and taste, and the status of the artist versus that of the artisan.

https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/discover-collection/vanity-small-differences