Grayson Perry begins each episode of Grayson’s Art Club by announcing the week’s theme—portraits, animals, fantasy, home—then waits for the postal sacks of loo-roll sculptures, Whitty ceramics and NHS-clap embroideries to arrive. Shot on static cameras in his London studio while the city stood empty, the series turned Channel 4 into an open-access art school: over ten thousand submissions arrived within six weeks, and more than a million viewers watched Perry unpack them in real time. Philippa Perry co-presents, throwing pots of her own and conducting gentle psychoanalysis on the nation’s creative urges.
The format is deceptively simple: Perry sets no technical bar, only the demand that the piece be "genuine and heartfelt"; celebrity guests—Noel Fielding’s cardboard Basquiat party, Joe Lycett’s oil-pastel Chris Whitty—provide comic ballast while Antony Gormley or Maggi Hambling demonstrate what professionals do with the same brief. Remote interviews with frontline nurse Hannah Grace Deller, who photographed a Covid dog show, sit beside a blind artist’s window-fridge drawing; every selected work, amateur or famous, earns equal wall space in the eventual exhibition.
Three series and two lockdowns later, the show outgrew its crisis-era origins. Themes shifted from immediate survival—"View from Your Window", "Home"—to the speculative "Future", yet the democratic principle held: submit via the website, receive Perry’s televised verdict, and maybe see your piece hung between Banksy and a Year-7 cardboard dragon. The touring exhibitions at Manchester and Birmingham broke attendance records, proving that a national art collection can be crowdsourced from kitchen tables and still feel like a gallery. No closing summary sentence.
Production Details
Channel 4 / 3 Seasons / 18 Episodes / 2020 - Present
Main Cast
Grayson Perry as Self - Presenter
Philippa Perry as Self - Presenter
