Felicity Aylieff: Expressions in Blue

An accompaniment to Felicity Aylieff’s cobalt ceramic exhibition inspired by Kew’s botanical illustration archives.

Acclaimed ceramic artist Felicity Aylieff is renowned for creating dynamic, hand-thrown, and painted porcelain vessels on a colossal scale and has consistently traveled to China to realize her creative ambitions. Based in Jingdezhen, the world-famous capital of porcelain production, she has developed new methods of creation through enduring partnerships with teams of skilled technicians and artisans, allowing her to push the limits of this most challenging of materials.

2024 sees the exhibition Expressions in Blue, Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff come to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This landmark exhibition marks a high point in Aylieff’s career, showcasing the creative and technical journey of an artist working between cultures, realizing a unique ambition to create astonishing vessels on a monumental scale.

This book reveals insight into the process and challenges of creating such ground-breaking work, showcasing extraordinary new pieces inspired by Kew’s rich archives of botanical illustrations, from the ’new Ming’ vases to a collection of stylized Fencai enameled vessels. The text includes a personal testimonial from Aylieff and an essay by art historian John-Paul Stonard in celebration of this impressive body of work. With a foreword by Adrian Sassoon.

Over one hundred photographs showcase these monumental hand-thrown works in vivid color, including incredible five-meter-tall vases, all hand-painted with stunning cobalt oxides.

Felicity Aylieff has an established reputation as a maker of large-scale, sculptural ceramics. Based in Jingdezhen, China, she has a teaching career that spans over forty years and is currently professor of ceramics and glass and research at the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is held in numerous international private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.