LONDON— Grayson Perry is best known for revitalizing the neglected tradition of ceramics with his provocative, Turner Prize-winning classical urns inscribed with sexually explicit images. Now he has turned his impressive skills to the moribund decorative art of tapestry making. The Walthamstow Tapestry, named for the area of London where Perry maintains a studio, is a nearly 50-foot-long allegory of the contemporary life cycle: birth, shopping, death. Major brand names, but no logos, ranging from the high end (Louis Vuitton, Tiffany) to the mass market (IKEA), punctuate the sprawling, folk-art-inspired landscape. The piece was specially commissioned for the Victoria Miro gallery, where it’s on view October 9 through November 7 along with around six of Perry’s new ceramic pieces, priced between £35,000 and £55,000 ($57-89,000).

"Narrative Threads" originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's October 2009 Table of Contents.