Table accessory

yoox.com Exclusive Artist Product 2012 has been an exceptional year for Grayson Perry, with three critically acclaimed exhibitions in London at the British Museum, Royal Academy of Arts and Victoria Miro Gallery. ‘I am interested in the politics of consumerism and the history of popular design,’ says Perry, ‘but for this project I focus on the emotional investment we make in the things we choose to live with, wear, eat, read or drive.’ Looking in particular at our homes and the objects we surround ourselves with, Perry created six tapestries for Victoria Miro Gallery, London, and six placemats (in a limited edition) exclusively for yoox.com. ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’ is Grayson Perry’s response to our fascination with taste and the visual story it tells of our interior lives.

Grayson Perry, winner of the 2003 Turner Prize (the UK’s most prestigious art prize) uses the seductive qualities of ceramics and other art forms to make stealthy comments about societal injustices and hypocrisies, and to explore a variety of historical and contemporary themes. The beauty of his work is what draws us close. Covered with scraffito drawings, handwritten and stencilled texts, photographic transfers and rich glazes, Perry's detailed pots are deeply alluring. He is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing us in with wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as fear and anger. Autobiographical references - to the artist's childhood, his family and his transvestite alter ego Claire - can be read in tandem with debates about décor and decorum and the status of the artist versus that of the artisan, debates which Perry turns on their head. Born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1960, Grayson Perry lives and works in London. Perry has had major solo exhibitions at The British Museum (2011), Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2008) and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2007).

Victoria Miro Gallery - One of the largest commercial spaces in London, Victoria Miro Gallery represents established names such as film and installation artist Doug Aitken, and younger talent including Conrad Shawcross; and also works with estates of artists, such as the painter Alice Neel. The gallery represents two winners of the Turner Prize: Chris Ofili, who won the prize in 1998, and the 2003 winner Grayson Perry, as well as three Turner Prize nominees: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Peter Doig and Isaac Julien. Victoria Miro first opened her gallery in Cork Street, Mayfair in 1985 and relocated to an 8,000-square-foot former furniture factory situated in northeast London in 2000. In October 2006 the gallery expanded further by opening Victoria Miro 14, a 9,000-square-foot exhibition space.