Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry has turned his often controversial focus on to class and taste for a summer show at the Royal Academy.

His six intricate and thought-provoking tapestries, entitled The Vanity of Small Differences, tell the story of the rise and demise of Tim Rakewell, a social climber, inspired by Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress.

Exploring Grayson’s fascination with aesthetic taste and social mobility, the tapestries are composed of characters, incidents and objects he encountered on journeys through Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and the Cotswolds for a BAFTA-winning documentary for Channel 4, entitled All In The Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry.

Cross-dresser Grayson, who wore a pink baby doll dress to receive his Turner Prize in 2003, has said of himself that, although he may live in middle class dominated Islington, with a middle class wife, if you cut him he would be ‘Essex’ all the way through.

The 53-year-old works in sculpture, print-making, embroidery and drawing, but is also known for his ceramic vases decorated with unconventional, and often shocking, imagery. His patrons include Charles Saatchi.

Grayson was born in Chelmsford and spent his younger years in Bicknacre. He describes himself as a working class grammar school boy. Commenting on his tapestries, he says: “They tell the story of class mobility, for I think nothing has as strong an influence on our aesthetic taste as the social class in which we grow up.

“I am interested in the politics of consumerism and the history of popular design, but for this project I focus on the emotional investment we make in the things we choose to live with, wear, eat, read or drive.

“Class and taste run deep in our character – we care. This emotional charge is what draws me to a subject.“ Colour, texture and pattern are all used to attract the eye and draw us in. The power of his work lies in the deliberate clash between form and content – between beautiful objects and the challenging, often disturbing subject matter they address.

  • Grayson Perry’s tapestry series The Vanity of Small Differences is on show at Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, until Sunday, August 18, 10am to 6pm, late night opening, Fridays until 10pm. Details: 020 7300 8000, www.royalacademy.org.uk