In a piece for The Guardian Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing visit degree shows at some of London’s art schools, and reflect on the young crop of aspiring artists.  “It used to be that each generation had a ‘thing’ that was trendy to do, but I’m struck by how Chelsea students seem to do a bit of everything,” Perry says. “No one seems able to commit to one single form. I guess, because of the internet and their economic situation, it’s about contingency, but it means there’s a non-committal quality to the show. It might be fear, or maybe just be the nature of contemporary culture, where everything’s going on at once, and it does make me wonder about the future.” (more…)

Financial Times editor Simon Schama recently sat down with artist Grayson Perry for an interview covering the artist’s new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.  Discussing his influences and practice, the artist goes on to discuss the broader context of British art in the global community. “We are all so desperate to hunt for Englishness, to try and connect to the European renaissance, that we are missing our own brilliant contribution to world culture, which is to say, “Oh come off it!” That’s what we do, hold complex ideas and manage to be ambiguous in a humane way, to celebrate humanity while at the same time satirising it, that’s what makes us English.” (more…)

Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Grayson Perry have created works to give to the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. David Hockney used a drawing of her initials made on an iPad and Emin created a portrait of her on paper. In total 97 works were acquired for the Royal Collection and will be exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2013.
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Toby Ziegler‘s The Cripples, image via Art Observed

Back in 2003 in Frieze’s first year, no major international art fair had ever been hosted in London before. Frieze Art Fair, organized by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, has helped take London from being a city without a focused art scene to its current state at the center of the European art market. Now in its tenth year, Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regent’s Park has seen around 60,000 visitors, with 264 dealers from 35 countries hoping to sell work (valuing an estimated  £230m) created by more than 2,400 artists within 175 of the world’s leading galleries.

An Aaron Young motorcycle burn out work at Massimo de Carlo in Milan, photo via Art Observed

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Grayson Perry, Turner prize-winner, plans to build an art-encrusted holiday residence resembling a shrine in Essex, which will be devoted to a mythical Essex woman named Julie. The elaborate house will be rented out from 2014 onward as part of Alain de Botton’s effort to introduce a type of avant-garde experience into travel. (more…)

Along with other British notables interviewed in The Guardian, Grayson Perry discusses what the various names for the ‘evening meal’ indicate about an individual’s social class. The artist, who often centerpieces the discussion of social class divides in his art, claims that “the word supper implies a subtle rebuke to the aspirational classes who are gauche enough to hold dinner parties at home.”

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The Telegraph interviews Turner Prize Winner, Grayson Perry, now showcasing his series for Channel 4. “I wanted the programme to be non-judgmental because I didn’t want my taste to dominate. It’s not about what is good and bad,” says Perry on the role of ‘taste’ in his new work.

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Grayson Perry, The Frivolous Now (2011). Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London. Copyright Grayson Perry. Photo: Stephen White

In the The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry curates a show combining treasures from the British Museum‘s permanent collection and a selection of his own works. The show focuses on honoring the craftsman, the many men and women who have anonymously created craft objects throughout the ages, displaying contemporary objects alongside creations from the past two million years, according to the press release.

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Green glazed composition staff-terminal in the form of the god Bes sitting on a lotus flower with a monkey between his feet. Egypt, 664-332 BC. Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum

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Grayson Perry, via Esquire

British artist Grayson Perry has been named a Royal Academician for Printmaking at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, joining artists such as Tracy Emin and David Hockney as recipient of the prestigious title. Perry identifies as a transvestite and is known primarily for his ceramic work.

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Postcard from RCA Secret 2010 at the Royal College of Art, all photos via The Guardian

Twenty-eight hundred postcards are on view at the Royal College of Art in London through 6 pm this Friday, November 19. Until November 20th, the artists who created them will remain anonymous, their names (signed on the back of each card) revealed to buyers only after purchase during a one-day sale. The collection constitutes RCA Secret 2010: an annual exhibition and sale of postcard-sized art benefiting the Royal College of Art Fine Art Student Award Fund. To add to the allure of the unknown, a few household names are among the 1,000+ participating artists, including Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Yoko Ono, Jake Chapman, Olafur Eliasson, Yinka Shonibare, Sir Peter Blake, John Baldessari, fashion designers Manolo Blahnik, Mary Quant and Sir Paul Smith, animator Nick Park, photographer David Bailey, film maker Mike Leigh and designers Ron Arad and James Dyson. Students and graduates from the Royal College of Art comprise the majority of the participants.

More details and postcards after the jump…
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Alice Neel, photographed by Sam Brody courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery

“In The Company of Alice” is currently on view at Victoria Miro Gallery. This is a group exhibition of paintings honoring the life and work of Alice Neel. Each of the painters participating in the show drew inspiration from their admiration for Neel’s work. Some of the artists in the show often create portraits–but for others this is a new endeavor, and their very first portraits are being shown in this exhibition. “In the Company of Alice” coincides with a retrospective of Neel’s work at Whitechapel Gallery, opening on July 8^th. Studying Alice Neel’s work as a point of departure for modern and contemporary portraiture, “In the Company of Alice” aims to broaden the viewer’s perspective of figuration and portraiture. The exhibition also brings forth the importance of  these modes of practice in relation to contemporary art.

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Alice Neel, Richard, 1973, courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery

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Mark Leckey receiving the Turner Prize, via the Guardian

The only male among the four artists selected as nominees for this year’s Turner Prize emerged as the winner of what is widely considered Britain’s most important contemporary arts competition, held at the Tate Britain museum for the last 24 years. Mark Leckey’s Cinema in the Round clinched the Turner Prize, joining the ranks of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread,  the Chapman Brothers, Tomma Abts, Steve McQueen, among many other now prominent artists.  The Turner Prize is awarded to the best artist under 50 by a jury which changes every year.  Leckey’s works included films that examined the role of movies and other media in the daily lives of viewers, and how they see themselves.  Cinema in the Round examined this theme in depth, referencing external cultural imagery drawn from such as sources as Felix the Cat, Homer Simpson, Titanic the movie and Philip Guston.  Leckey beat out fellow artists Runa Islam, Cathy Wilkes, and Goshka Macuga for the £25,000 prize, which was presented by musician Nick Cave.  The other competitors took home £5,000 as consolation prize.

Official Site: Turner Prize 2008
Video: ‘I want a TV show,’ Interview with Mark Leckey [Guardian]
Photos: Turner prize 2008: Happy go Leckey [Guardian]
Modest art: out goes the controversy as magpie of the artworld steals the show [Guardian]
‘Felix the Cat’ Artist Mark Leckey Wins Turner Prize [Bloomberg]
Mark Leckey Wins Prestigious 2008 Turner Prize – World’s Top Contemporary Art Award [ArtDaily]

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