RPS Music Awards Speaker
Grayson Perry
RPS Awards Speaker 2010
Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist who works in a variety of media, including embroidery and photography, yet he is best known for his ceramic works: classically shaped vases covered with figures, patterns and text. In 2003, he became famous as the first ceramic artist and to win the Turner Prize.
Grayson was born in Chelmsford in 1960 and went on to study at Braintree College of Further Education and at Portsmouth Polytechnic. He has been the subject of ITV'S The Southbank Show and in 2007 was arts correspondent for The Times.
In 2005 he wrote and presented an hour-long documentary for Channel 4 entitled Why Men Wear Frocks, in which he examined transvestitism and masculinity in the 21st century. In the programme, Grayson speaks candidly about his own experiences and the effect it has had on him and his family. The documentary won a Royal Television Society award for Best Network Production. The following year Grayson published an autobiographical account of his formative years entitled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl.
In 2007, Grayson fronted his second documentary, Spare Time, for More 4. In this programme Grayson explored the contemporary landscape of leisure and asked if we are really getting the most out of our precious free time.