He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries,[1] and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foibles".

[2] Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance.

There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as "Claire", his female alter-ego, and "Alan Measles", his childhood teddy bear, often appear.

[11] In 2012, Perry was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the Beatles' Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life.

Subsequently, he spent an unhappy childhood moving between his parents and created a fantasy world based around his teddy in order to cope with his sense of anxiety.

In the months following his graduation, he joined the Neo Naturists, a group started by Christine Binnie to revive the "true sixties spirit – which involves living one's life more or less naked and occasionally manifesting it into a performance for which the main theme is body paint".

[31] In his work, Perry includes pictures of himself in stereotypically women's clothes: for example, Mother of All Battles (1996) is a photograph of Claire holding a gun and wearing a dress, in ethnic Eastern European style, embroidered with images of war, exhibited at his 2002 Guerrilla Tactics show.

An exhibition, Making Himself Claire: Grayson Perry's Dresses, was held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, from November 2017 to February 2018.

Perry often works with media such as ceramics and weaving, which are traditionally considered to be lower down the hierarchy of arts than sculpture and painting.

It hasn't got any big pretensions to being great public works of art, and no matter how brash a statement I make, on a pot it will always have certain humility ... [F]or me the shape has to be classical invisible: then you've got a base that people can understand".

Most have a complex surface employing many techniques, including "glazing, incision, embossing, and the use of photographic transfers",[38] which requires several firings.

In his work Perry reflects upon his upbringing as a boy, his stepfather's anger and the absence of proper guidance about male conduct.

Perry combines various techniques as a "guerrilla tactic", using the approachable medium of pottery to provoke thought.

The house encapsulates the story of Julie May Cope, a fictional Essex woman,[44] "born in a flood-struck Canvey Island in 1953 and mown down last year by a curry delivery driver in Colchester".

[45] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ellis Woodman said, "Sporting a livery of green and white ceramic tiles, telephone-box red joinery and a gold roof, it is not easy to miss.

... Decoration is everywhere: from the external tiles embossed with motifs referencing Julie's rock-chick youth to extravagant tapestries recording her life's full narrative.

Perry has contributed ceramic sculptures, modelled on Irish Sheelanagigs, which celebrate her as a kind of latter-day earth mother while the delivery driver's moped has even been repurposed as a chandelier suspended above the double-height living room.

[47] The work was shown in an exhibition, Grayson Perry: The Life of Julie Cope, at Firstsite in Colchester, Essex, from January to February 2018.

[48] In 2005, Perry presented a Channel 4 documentary, Why Men Wear Frocks, in which he examined transvestism and masculinity at the start of the 21st century.

At the same time, he photographs, and then illustrates his experiences and the people, transcribing them into large tapestries, entitled The Vanity of Small Differences.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Perry presented Grayson's Art Club from his home studio alongside his wife Philippa, encouraging viewers to produce and share their own artworks from lockdown.

Along with pieces submitted by practising artists and celebrity guests, the public's work went on display at an exhibition in Manchester, however, this did not go ahead due to COVID-19 restrictions.

[59] Other television and radio appearances also include the BBC's Question Time, HARDtalk, Desert Island Discs, Have I Got News for You, and QI.

[66] In 2011 he returned to the annual Koestler Trust exhibition, this time held at London's Southbank Centre and judged the award winners in Art by Offenders with Will Self and Emma Bridgewater.