The Royal Academy of Arts and The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, Announce Royal Academician Grayson Perry as the First Exhibition of a Three-Year Curatorial Partnership
The Royal Academy of Arts, London, announces a new three-year curatorial partnership with The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida. Opening on January 15, 2018, the first annual exhibition at Windsor presented in collaboration with the Royal Academy will be Grayson Perry Making Meaning. The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, Windsor co-founder and Creative Director for The Gallery at Windsor, Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy, and Tim Marlow, Artistic Director of the Royal Academy have selected the program. Exhibitions by two further Royal Academicians will take place in 2019 and 2020.
Internationally renowned British artist and 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.
Making Meaning will offer an overview of Grayson Perry’s work, exploring themes of Britishness, identity, craftsmanship and the art establishment. The exhibition will include 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, in particular the monumental tapestry Comfort Blanket, exhibited in Perry’s acclaimed National Portrait Gallery London exhibition Who are you? in 2014. The exhibition has been curated by Erin Manns, Director of Exhibitions, Victoria Miro, London. There will be a 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.
Celebrating its 250th 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 program 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.
Tim Marlow, Artistic Director at the Royal Academy of Arts, said: “The RA is delighted to be working with The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, to bring some of Britain’s most well-loved artists to American audiences. The curatorial partnership between the RA and Windsor perfectly complements the RA’s mission to promote the lively exchange of culture and ideas not just in the UK, but internationally, and I’m immensely proud that Grayson Perry is launching the project – he is one of the most perceptive and provocative artists of his generation and although he will hate me for saying this, he’s well on the way to the status of a national treasure.”
Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy of Arts, said: “I was delighted to present an exhibition of work at Windsor at the beginning of the year, and am pleased to have played a part in bringing two institutions with a rich exhibition history together. I’m looking forward to seeing what each of our Academicians has in store for us.”
The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, co-founder of Windsor and the Creative Director for The Gallery at Windsor said “We have long admired the Royal Academy and its internationally renowned program of exhibitions and events, and are delighted to be forming a partnership with them. We are honored to welcome Grayson Perry as the first artist in our exhibition series. Windsor has a fantastic history of showing world-class contemporary artists, including Ed Ruscha, Peter Doig and Alex Katz, and Grayson is a glittering addition.”
Dates and Opening Hours
Open to public: January 15 – April 27, 2018
The Gallery at Windsor is open to the public by appointment Tuesday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. 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.
Social Media
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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 250th 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.
Media Contacts
The Royal Academy of Arts
Elena Davidson, Press Officer at 020 7300 5615 or email Elena.Davidson@royalacademy.org.uk
Windsor
Jane Smalley, Marketing Director at 772 388 8609 or email Jane.Smalley@windsorflorida.com
Grayson Perry, Hold Your Beliefs Lightly, 2011, Computerized embroidery on cotton and silk © Grayson Perry. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London / Venice.
Grayson Perry portrait © Thierry Bal, 2017.