Grayson Perry brings Provincial Punk to Margate...

Margate is buzzing with colour and excitement this summer! With the opening of Dreamland Pleasure Park and The New Grayson Perry exhibition at the Turner Contemporary as well as lots of colourful, unique and modern new pieces at Papillon Interiors just across the road, a visit is an absolute must!

Grayson Perry is one of the most prominent and incisive commentators on contemporary society and culture and Margate is lucky enough to have a showcase of more than 50 of his unique pieces of work in his Provincial Punk exhibition at the Turner Contemporary. The exhibition explores the idea of ‘Provincial Punk’ as an anti-elitist and teasingly unfashionable spirit of creativity at the heart of his work.

Perry has always loved working with ceramics and its a medium he embraced because of its ‘second class’ and uncool status. His ceramic vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, they are visually seductive and touch on themes such as religion, childhood trauma and environmental disaster.

From provincial to popular, Perry guides us through his chronicles of modern life, and in post-election Britain, helps us assess culture, identity, class and the role of artist and craftsperson from then to now. 

“I was a punk in the provincial sense. I was there in my bedroom with an old school shirt stencilling the word ‘hate’ onto it, looking out onto the lush turf of the north Essex countryside. Then, when I came to London, I was hanging out with people who were at the cutting edge of fashion - Body map, John Maybury, Cerith Wyn Evans, Steven Jones and Michael Clark were my part of my social circle at the time. And yet I was making pottery … with a Shetland woolly jumper view of the world and that was funny.

The idea of ‘Provincial Punk’ is an oxymoron but it encapsulates creatively some sort of spirit in my work that still goes on to this day. It is a very creative force, a willingness to turn things over, to not accept the fashion and to have a bit of fun. It is a kind of teasing rebellion; it is not a violent revolution.”

Grayson Perry