In our latest review, Dr Suneel Mehmi praises an exhibition of porcelain art that blends Chinese and Western styles. The artist, inspired by nature, has created both monumental abstract pieces and smaller, more detailed works.
Felicity Aylieff Exhibition Photography, autumn 2024
Expressions in Blue – Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff
Kew Gardens, London
An astonishingly beautiful collaboration of Western art with the Chinese in the “Porcelain Capital” of the world, Jingdezhen, China, ‘Expressions in Blue’ has been a phenomenally popular exhibition at Kew Gardens. There are two intertwining styles here: the traditional Chinese blue and white of the lustrous ceramic shown in a truly monumental size and realised through abstract brush strokes and then the brightly coloured and more figurative fencai.
The artist is a lover of plants and gardens since her childhood when she would press flowers from around her area. And also a lover of Kew Gardens throughout the seasons. This is evident in the passion displayed in the painstaking construction of each of her pots.
The vibe here is internationalism, evidenced by that splendid fencai which bears touches of Indian miniature painting, Dutch Still Life, contemporary Western art through the dot patterning and botanical drawings and illustrations throughout the Kew Gardens archives. True innovation through diversity and a real updating of the tradition.
Felicity Aylieff Exhibition Photography, autumn 2024
When you walk into the gallery that houses the monumental ceramic, you enter into an abstract forest of porcelain. The space around you is reshaped and reinvigorated. There is a crystallisation of the imagination and inspiration from nature which, as Felicity Aylieff says, allows us to see plants and trees in altogether another way.
The intent with the monumental pieces is to awe and inspire through nature, to reconceptualise the world. For the artist, to create a huge canvas in which the artistic self can be fully expressed. The light of the porcelain is seductive, so are its smooth forms. Technical mastery is achieved in each of the pieces, the fulfilment of experiment and experience.
The exhibition has an insightful cinema screen interview with the artist which showcases the process and thinking behind the art and also many intriguing photographs showing the dance of the artist around the beauties that she creates. There is a focus on technique as this is a display of innovative technical excellence, the array of brushes and special paints that she uses are exhibited for instance.
The sheer beauty of the exhibition cannot be denied. It is universally popular with the public. The work has been presented so wonderfully in each of the galleries alongside blue, yellow and white paint on the walls, which create different effects and contrasts with the pottery, draw different insights. In the abstract forms, we try to find recognisable shapes. In the fencai, we become lost in the patterning of the figurative, the play between imagination and mimesis. Truly, a remarkable experience that invokes all the senses and incites creativity and the love of art and nature in the viewer.
Expressions in Blue – Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff is at Kew Gardens, London, until 23 March 2025.