Grayson Perry is a English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing. There are often strong autobiographical element in his work, focusing on his childhood, family and identity. His richly-detailed work draws the viewer into the different narratives.
The print series Six Snapshots of Julie (2015) by Grayson Perry are a celebration of the ordinary: they feature six events from childhood to maturity of the life of Julie Cope, a fictional Essex girl. They focus on random but poignant scenes. The woodcuts are bold and large enough to tell their tales easily. They were first created in 2015 alongside other elements of Grayson Perry’s work in the architectural collaboration House for Essex, resembling a fairy-tale cabin designed as a shrine for Julie Cope, including pottery and tapestries, but they also stand alone as a significant suite of works. They fit perfectly with a range of subjects within the Williamson’s existing collection.
For the first series of Grayson Perry’s Art Club for Channel 4, Grayson visited the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead during the COVID lockdown period, in September 2020, and footage of the closed gallery was included in one of the programmes. He was interested in the situation of a small regional gallery and its importance to the local community; this became especially relevant a few months later when the Williamson was under threat of closure due to the local authority’s financial difficulties.
The collection at the Williamson is very strong in its local roots. Artists of regional significance from the last 250 years are well represented but it is not always those names that spark the initial interest of visitors, or prospective visitors. Over several decades the Contemporary Art Society has been significant in distributing work by ‘name’ artists that can provide additional draw to the gallery for visitors and press.
