Windsor Founders, Galen and Hilary Weston hosted a VIP weekend to celebrate the opening of Making Meaning, an exhibition by the internationally acclaimed British artist Grayson Perry RA at The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida. The exhibition, which runs until 27 April 2018, launches a new three-year curatorial partnership between The Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

The guest list included high society and art world elite, including Royal Academy President Christopher Le Brun, Royal Academy Artistic Director Tim Marlow, Brooklyn Museum Board Vice Chair Stephanie Ingrassia, interior designer Alessandra Branca, Canadian television presenter Valerie Pringle, director of Victoria Miro Oliver Miro, Dali Museum Board Chair Karen Lang Johnston, writer and editor James Reginato, Executive Director of the Vero Beach Museum of Art Brady Roberts, and Helmut and Danna Swarovski of the famed Swarovski crystal family.

Following the Private View of the exhibition, guests attended a conversation between Grayson Perry and Tim Marlow. This was followed by a celebratory dinner hosted by the Westons at their Windsor oceanfront home.

The exhibition offers an overview of Grayson Perry’s work, exploring themes of Britishness, identity, craftsmanship and the art establishment. It includes some of his major works in ceramic, tapestry, sculpture and etching, as well as featuring vignettes from some of the artist’s recent museum shows. The exhibition has been curated by Erin Manns, Director of Exhibitions, Victoria Miro, London. There is fully illustrated catalogue published by Windsor Press and the RA, with an essay by Jenny Uglow and an interview with Grayson Perry by Tim Marlow and Christopher Le Brun.

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry RA is a vivid chronicler of contemporary life, boldly tackling subjects that are universally human, such as identity, gender, social status, sexuality and religion. Autobiographical references – to the artist’s childhood, his family and his transvestite alter ego Claire – 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. Perry uses the seductive qualities of ceramics and other traditional art forms, including cast iron, bronze, printmaking and tapestry, to make stealthy comments about society, past and present, and its pleasures as well as its injustices and flaws.

Celebrating its 250^th year, the RA is an independent institution led by eminent artists and architects; its purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. The three-year curatorial collaboration builds on the exhibition programme of renowned artists who have shown at The Gallery at Windsor, with recent exhibitions of Christopher Le Brun PRA, Peter Doig, Jasper Johns Hon RA, Per Kirkeby Hon RA and Ed Ruscha Hon RA.

Dates and Opening Hours
Open to public: 15 January – 27 April 2018
The Gallery at Windsor is open to the public by appointment Tuesday through Friday between 11am and 3pm. To schedule an appointment, contact The Gallery at 772 388 4071 or via email to gallery@windsorflorida.com.

Admission
There is no admission fee to view the exhibition.
Exhibition visitors to The Gallery may choose to support The Windsor Charitable Foundation with a suggested donation of $10. This gift is tax-deductible and is designated to support arts education.

Social Media
Join the discussion about the exhibition online at:
Facebook        /royalacademy            /windsorflorida
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Twitter             @royalacademy         @windsorflorida

About the Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy of Arts was founded by King George III in 1768. It has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to be a clear, strong voice for art and artists.  Its public programme promotes the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.

The RA is undergoing a transformative redevelopment which will be completed in time for its 250^th anniversary in 2018. Led by the internationally-acclaimed architect Sir David Chipperfield RA and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the plans will link Burlington House on Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens for the first time, uniting the two-acre site. The redevelopment will also reveal the elements that make the RA unique, sharing with the public the historic treasures in its Collection, the work of its Academicians and the RA Schools, alongside its world-class exhibitions programme. For more information on the RA visit www.royalacademy.org.uk/ra250#video.

About Grayson Perry RA

Born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1960, Grayson Perry lives and works in London. Institutional venues for major national and international solo exhibitions by the artist include The Serpentine Galleries, London (2017); Arnolfini, Bristol (2017); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus (2016); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2015 – 2016) and Turner Contemporary, Margate (2015). In 2011, The British Museum opened The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, a critically acclaimed show in which Perry combined his own works with historical artefacts chosen from the vast British Museum collection. The Vanity of Small Differences, Perry’s monumental suite of tapestries exploring the subject of taste in contemporary Britain, was acquired by The Arts Council Collection and British Council and has subsequently toured throughout the UK and Europe. The making of these works was chronicled in the first of Perry’s Channel 4 television series, All In the Best Possible Taste, a 2013 Bafta Specialist Factual winner. Perry’s second Bafta-winning television series Who Are You?, about identity, was broadcast in 2014, accompanied by a solo presentation of works at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The series All Man, which considered masculinity, followed in 2016, with Allen Lane publishing the related book The Descent of Man. Perry delivered The Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4’s annual flagship talk series, in 2013; his ensuing book Playing to the Gallery is published by Penguin. The artist’s A House for Essex, a permanent building designed in collaboration with FAT Architecture, was constructed in the North Essex countryside in 2015.

Winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, Perry was elected a Royal Academician in 2012, and received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2013; he has been awarded the prestigious appointments of Trustee of the British Museum and Chancellor of the University of the Arts London (both in 2015), and received a RIBA Honorary Fellowship in 2016.

About The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida

Founded in 2002, The Gallery at Windsor (www.windsorflorida.com/gallery) is an independent art space at the heart of the Windsor community. The Gallery annually invites curators to respond to the space with museum-quality shows of contemporary art. The Hon. Hilary M. Weston serves as Creative Director for The Gallery.

The Gallery has exhibited works by leading contemporary artists including Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Ed Ruscha, Bruce Weber, Peter Doig, Alex Katz and Per Kirkeby Hon RA. In April 2011, a three-year collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, London realised exhibitions by Beatriz Milhazes, Gert & Uwe Tobias, and American Icon Jasper Johns Hon RA. Most recently, The Gallery presented British painter and President of the Royal Academy of Arts Christopher Le Brun in a major two-part exhibition titled Composer which opened in February 2017.

About Windsor

Windsor (www.windsorflorida.com) is a private residential sporting club community spanning 425 acres of lush barrier island between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean in Vero Beach, Florida. Established in 1989 by Hilary and W. Galen Weston of Toronto, Canada, Windsor was designed by renowned town planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk in the New Urbanism style of residential living, one that offers public and community spaces framed by timeless architecture and landscape design that celebrates its tropical and unspoiled setting. Windsor is comprised of 350 homesites in various styles including village homes, cottages and country estates, all remarkable for their signature Anglo-Caribbean architecture and gracious living.  Residents enjoy privacy and seclusion combined with the finest amenities, exemplary services and sporting activities.

For further press information, please contact Elena Davidson on 020 7300 5615 or email elena.davidson@royalacademy.org.uk.