For the 2026 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Grayson Perry has created Behold Humanity (196 x 256 cm), a new tapestry produced by Factum Arte. Inspired by conversations with leading figures in artificial intelligence, the work explores what it means to be human in an age increasingly shaped by technology.

The work emerged from Perry's encounters with leading figures in artificial intelligence while filming the Channel 4 documentary Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future, in which he travelled to Silicon Valley to explore the promises, contradictions and anxieties surrounding AI.

"Talking to those people my take away thought was AI will make us become intensely aware of our humanity. We will be confronted with what we can do and AI cannot."

Rather than imagining the future through machines, Perry turned towards history. Looking for an image capable of expressing the fragility and physicality of human existence, he found inspiration in the Orthodox Christian Epitaphios—embroidered liturgical textiles depicting the body of Christ laid out after the Crucifixion.

The composition borrows this centuries-old visual language while replacing its biblical figures with some of the most influential voices shaping artificial intelligence today. Gathered around Humanity are portraits of Jack Clark (Anthropic), Amanda Askell, Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI), Maya Mataric and Eliezer Yudkowsky, among others. A microchip forms the blue ground, while drones and the OpenAI logo appear as contemporary symbolic motifs.

For Factum Arte, the production of Behold Humanity continues a long-standing collaboration with Grayson Perry, translating complex digital imagery into woven form while preserving the extraordinary richness of colour, texture and detail that characterises his tapestries.

As Perry himself concludes:

"AI will make us become intensely aware of our humanity."

The tapestry is on view at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from 16 June until 23 August 2026.