The Wallace Collection announces a major exhibition by Grayson Perry as part of its 2025 programme

On view 28 March–26 October 2025, to mark his 65th birthday, Perry will create and curate a new exhibition at the Wallace Collection, a museum that has inspired him throughout his life. 

The Collection’s famous Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (1759) by François Boucher (1703-1770) has long fascinated Perry, as have a great many other pieces in the London museum including its superb group of English miniatures and an early 18th-century bronze of Mezzetin, soulfully strumming his guitar.

For this exhibition, titled Delusions of Grandeur, Perry has created a fictional persona, Shirley Smith, who wakes up in Hertford House after a mental health crisis and believes herself to be the rightful heir to such treasures – and indeed, the entire Wallace Collection. Through this persona, a series of new artworks have been made – inspired and influenced by those in the Collection – intended to decorate an imagined family home, complete with ancestral portraits, old masters and priceless antiques. As such, Delusions of Grandeur presents this new fantasy world alongside existing items Perry has selected from the Collection.

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Image: Grayson Perry, detail from a new work for Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur, 2025

© Grayson Perry

Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro