Extended Biography

Born in Edlesborough, Bedfordshire in 1954, Felicity studied at Bath Academy of Art, 1972 -8 gaining a 1st Class Hons degree in ceramics and textiles. She went on to undertake a teaching postgraduate year at Goldsmiths College 1978-9 and going on to teach at Bedales School in Hampshire renowned for its Art department and ‘progressive’ teaching philosophy, 1979 – 82. She then became a regular visiting lecturer to numerous courses including Loughborough, Glasgow, Goldsmith’s and Cardiff whilst being an associate lecturer in foundation and ceramic studies at Bath College of HE. She became fulltime at Bath Spa University in 1989-2001. During this period she undertook an MPhil degree at the RCA, 1993- 6, researching the suitability of glass and porcelain inclusions into clay bodies for large scale ceramic production - ‘the Elusive Body’. In 2001 she began teaching at the Royal College of Art where is currently Professor of ceramics and glass.

Felicity has been a member and an advisor on numerous committees, including the ‘Think Tank’ for Year of the Artist in 2000 and The Crafts Council, 2002-4. She was a trustee of Contemporary Applied Arts and Chair of NACHE (National Assoc. of Ceramics in Higher Education) She remains a trustee for the Craft Potters Charitable Trust, a board member of the Acquisitions committee of the Crafts Study centre Farnham and is on the selection committee for the Queen Elizabeth Trust, funding scholarships and apprenticeships in the Crafts. Between 2003-4 she was advisor to Cleere Conservation, Coadestone advising on the development of the material. As part of her personal remit to promote ceramics in education she was for many years advisor and coordinator of the ‘Discovery’ education programme for Ceramic Art London.

She set up a group studio in Bath in a disused Saw mill in 1995 for emerging ceramic artists, and in 2000 she restored an old Chapel in Bath which she shared as a studio with internationally renowned potter, Takeshi Yasuda(closed in 2020) Since 2006 she has been making work in China and recently co-founded with Yasuda, and Baixu Xiong, the Red House Ceramic Design studio in the historic ‘porcelain city’ of Jingdezhen.

Felicity has consistently exhibited and lectured at venues throughout the UK and abroad. Since 2000 catalogues have accompanied all Solo shows with key essays about the artist and her work. She has been the recipient of 2 major Art Council Awards, the first in 2002 for the touring exhibition Sense and Perception at Manchester City Art Gallery and in 2008 a major award for the touring exhibition and artists book, ‘Out of China’. She organized and Chaired the international Symposium ‘White Gold’ in 2006, project funded by the Diawa Foundation.

Joining the Ceramics and Glass department at the RCA in 2001 as senior tutor, she was responsible for it’s day-to-day organization, course planning and strategy. She stepped aside from this role in 2019 to concentrate on her research and practice and took on the role of Professor to the programme. She has been external examiner to numerous undergraduate courses and for PhD’s in Ceramics.

She was made a Fellow of the RCA in 2008.

Work and Exhibiting Profile

Felicity established her exhibiting career during the 1980’s and early 90’s showing work mainly in group shows at small but significant venues, Beaux Arts, Bath, Galerie L, Hamburg, Smiths gallery, London, and Rufford Arts centre, Nottingham. In 1990 she was an invited craftsman and guest at the British Fair hosted by Takashimaya, Japan. This involved participating in a touring exhibition, lecturing and demonstration.

Her first significant solo exhibition was in 1996, ‘The Elusive Body’ at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, a public museum and art gallery where she showed the results of her MPhil research undertaken at the RCA. This toured to Gerd Werk, the centre for Spatial and graphic design in Belgium, 1997. In 1998 she developed a new body of work for a solo exhibition, Dashed Speckled, Brushed at Loes & Reinier, International Ceramics, Deventer Netherlands. These smaller scale hand formed works marked the beginning of her concern for the viewer’s perception and interaction with form and surface through touch. In 2000, new works emerged that were an increase in scale press -moulded with ground and polished surfaces. These were shown at the Scottish Gallery in a solo exhibition with a catalogue, ‘New work, an evolution’. With some additional pieces this collection went on to Gallerie Marianne Heller in Heidelberg, Germany in 2001. Also in 2001 Felicity was shortlisted for Jerwood Prize for Ceramics and the 1st World Biennale for Ceramics in Korea.

An exhibition, Sense and Perception’ at the Manchester City Art Gallery in 2002 saw the resolution of several years research and preoccupation with tactility where she made a collection of pieces specifically for their visual and physical tactile qualities. Experimental in scale and form they were shown directly on the gallery floor to encourage interaction with the audience. This show was significant in that it was the first major solo exhibition of Ceramic works by an artist to be shown in the main gallery of Manchester Art Gallery and allowed the audience to experience the work directly through touch. The exhibition was supported by the Arts Council and the project was in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University. A catalogue (with two essays) was published and the exhibition toured to two further venues, Bath Art gallery and Blackwell House, Cumbria.

In 2007 an exhibition at the Carlin Gallery in Paris, showed a new group of work that returned to the ‘vessel’ as part of the investigation. The pieces explored textured surfaces using handforming techniques and were layered with polychromatic colour applied in such a way as to create a visual interference to the surface of the form. In 2008 these works were shown at the Quest Gallery in Bath. Additional monochromatic works in Celadon were used as a counterpoint to the coloured works. A catalogue was produced for this venue, ‘4 pots and 12 Jars’.

In 2007 Felicity undertook a research sabbatical in China. With Arts Council funding the resultant work was exhibited in a touring show that started at Canary Wharf. Her diary of her time in China was published as a book, ‘Out of China’ and she produced a short film, recording her work practice and experience. This exhibition marked her growing interest in creating works of architectural in scale.

Further research continued in China looking at traditional techniques and possibilities for contemporary interpretations which culminated in a solo exhibition, ‘Working to Scale’ at Contemporary Applied Arts, London, in 2009.  A catalogue was produced as documentation.

In 2010 she participated in an exhibition ‘Drawing through Making’ also at Contemporary Applied Arts, London, with examples of her work as demonstration of expressive painting and mark making on to three-dimensional form. In the same year she undertook a short residency at the Royal Delft Porcelain factory in the Netherlands, her first experience working with industry. A professional film was made documenting the research. One of her designs was produced by Royal Delft as an artist’s edition, and the complete works produced during the residency were shown at Galerie Terra Delft in 2011.

In November 2011 she was one of 4 artists in the exhibition ‘Porcelain City’ at the Victoria & Albert museum, London, in the T.T.Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, with work made in Jingdezhen, China, the historic world centre of porcelain production. Two monumental works were selected for display, one example of Blue and white painting, the other of Fencai colour ware. A Publication was produced – ‘Porcelain City Jingdezhen’ with an essay, 'Scooters, Buddha’s and Waterlilies' authored by Felicity. In the same year,

featured in Documentary film, V&A /BBC4, Fragile Histories series, ‘Treasures of Chinese Porcelain’, Felicity was interviewed by historian Lars Tharp, and filmed painting her large works in Jingdezhen. (now available on YouTube)

She exhibited large scale works in 3 major exhibitions in 2012, The Perfect Place to Grow’ 175 years of the Royal College of Art, London, in November, ‘China’s White Gold, Contemporary Porcelain from Jingdezhen’, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK, and a Solo exhibition ‘An Affair with Scale: monumental ceramics’ at the Holburne Museum, Bath. The following year, February 2013, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston put on an international exhibition of ‘Blue and White’ and showed a 4.5 meter high work, ‘Chinese Ladders’. This monumental work was later collected by the museum for their permanent collection, and also illustrated in the exhibition catalogue.

Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, was the venue setting for ‘Modern Makers’ an exhibition curated by Sara Griffin for Sotheby’s, where Felicity exhibited a garniture of 6 small ‘blue and white’ pots and a pair of meter high lidded jars.

2014 saw her first major exhibition in China ‘European Contemporary Ceramic Masters' Exhibition, ‘Felicity Aylieff & Takeshi Yasuda’ at White Gold Kings Peak Art Space, Chengdu, China, to be followed in 2015 by a major collection of works exhibited at Qiangdao Sculpture Art Museum, Qiangdou China. In 2016 her work was selected for the Hangzhou International Contemporary Ceramic Art Biennale, and she presented a paper at the China Academy  of Art, Hangzhou, titled ‘Thinking Through Making, Making Through Thinking’. 2016 also saw her create a collection of painted ‘blue and white’ works for a Solo exhibition at the Linley space in London, and displayed her experiments with ‘cobalt blue’ used to create a rich tonal palette and the early developments of abstract striation mark making.

In 2017 Felicity was one of 8 international artists selected to exhibit at the Clayarch Museum, Gimmae, Korea, ‘From, In, To, Jingdezhen’. Each artist had a Solo focus and were connected through their relationship with Jingdezhen as the place of inspiration and making. In the same year 2 monumental vases were exhibited at Yale Centre for British Art, ‘A Thing of Beauty Growing’ an exhibition on British studio ceramics, Yale, Connecticut, USA.

Felicity’s work is well represented in Chatsworth House, Derbyshire where a number of early monumental works are held in the collection. June 2019 Sotheby’s, New York, held two exhibitions, Treasures from Chatsworth and Inspired by Chatsworth, Sotheby’s inaugural Opening exhibition of work from artists represented in the Chatsworth collection. The work in both of these exhibitions explored her then recent developments in Blue and white painting.

The exhibition ‘Modernity’ in 2020, was a collaborative exhibition with ‘Nordic Modern Design’ in Cavendish Sq. London. Felicity showed 3 large scale vessels decorated with Fencai enamel and a series of smaller works. This was the first time that her work had been exhibited in a nontraditional gallery space. Shown in a derelict house but alongside modernist furniture, this backdrop provided a sense of theatre and also the domestic. In June 2021 Parham House in West Sussex, provided a further opportunity for the placement of large scale works in a non- traditional gallery space amongst the collection of furniture and tapestries of this grand16thcentury Elizabethan house. A film and catalogues accompanied this exhibition.

Looking ahead to 2024/5, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and grounds of Kew Gardens, London, will be the location of a major Solo exhibition of Felicity’s work, taking an in depth view of her 18 year collaboration with the factories and artisan craftspeople of Jingdezhen, China, to achieve work in porcelain clay, monumental in scale.

Please see CV for more detailed activities and lectures, work in Collections and major commissions.