Victoria Miro Mayfair, London
Selling the mega wealthy crudely stereotyping scenes of their excessive lifestyles is worse than trite. But is the joke really on them?
Grayson Perry bites the hands that feed him in his new exhibition Super Rich Interior Decoration. Except he doesn’t really give them a serious wound. He just titillates wealthy fingers with a sexy nibble that makes buying his babbling ceramics, ranting wall hangings and anything-but-magical carpet feel naughty and fun for the super-rich art collectors who will shortly be rolling up for London’s Frieze art fair. Yes, that’s right – Perry is showing satires on the wealthy at a commercial show in the heart of Mayfair, its streets fragrant with expensive perfume and even more expensive cigar smoke, specifically to sell to the very elite he mocks.
The joke really is as trite and cynical as that. In an age when democracy itself is being chewed to pieces by ever more absurdly extreme postures, Perry may be the artist we deserve. His woodblock print Sponsored By You is a supposedly biting take on America and the 1%. It’s a big brightly coloured picture of monstrous, skeletal rich people driving a green sports car across an arid wasteland. The word PANAMA is plastered on its front to tell us this is about the rich using tax havens while their high-octane lifestyle destroys the planet. And the funny thing is, they’re going to buy this …
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