ARTWORK by Grayson Perry will be going on show in the Lake District.

The Turner Prize winner established his career in the field of ceramics, taking classical sculptural forms and portraying universally human subjects on their surface.

A small display of amazing ceramics at Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House, near Windermere, is the first time Royal Academician Perry's work has been exhibited at the venue. Perry’s work confronts and depicts issues surrounding gender, identity, social status, religion and sexuality, while telling stories of individuals and literary heroes intrinsically linked to British identity.

This Spotlight loan proceeds a Grayson Perry exhibition, Julie Cope's Grand Tour: The Story of a Life, at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, in Kendal, from November to February.

Julie Cope is a fictional character created by artist Grayson Perry – an Essex everywoman whose story he has told through the two tapestries and extended ballad presented in this Crafts Council touring exhibition.

The Essex House Tapestries: The Life of Julie Cope (2015) illustrate the key events in the heroine’s journey from her birth during the Canvey Island floods of 1953 to her untimely death in a tragic accident on a Colchester street. Rich in cultural and architectural details, the tapestries contain a social history of Essex and modern Britain that everyone can relate to.

The tapestries are shown alongside a graphic installation, and specially-commissioned audio recording of The Ballad of Julie Cope, a 3,000-word narrative written and read by Perry himself that illuminates Julie’s hopes and fears as she journeys through life. Historically, tapestries provided insulation for grand domestic interiors; Perry has juxtaposed its associations of status, wealth and heritage with the current concerns of class, social aspiration and taste. To write Julie’s biography, he looked to the English ballad and folktale tradition, narrating a life that conveys the beauty, vibrancy and contradictions of the ordinary individual.

Grayson Perry’s ceramics display at Blackwell runs from Friday September 1 until Sunday January 6, 2019. Julie Cope's Grand Tour runs at Abbot Hall from Friday November 9 until Saturday February 16, 2019.