Felicity Aylieff's Monumental Porcelain Vases at Kew Gardens

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, hosts the largest solo exhibition of ceramicist Felicity Aylieff, running from October to March. The show features monumental porcelain vases up to five meters high, hand-painted with cobalt blue oxides using the Qing Hua technique, inspired by botanical prints from Kew's archive. Aylieff, a professor at the Royal College of Art, has collaborated for nearly 20 years with artisans in Jingdezhen, China—the historic porcelain capital—where she studied Ming-era traditions to create works dubbed "new Ming." The exhibition also includes Fencai enamel vases with stylized floral motifs (tulips, peonies, cyclamen) from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, alongside raw materials, tools, sketchbooks, and a documentary film. It is Kew's first ceramics-focused exhibition, made possible with art dealer Adrian Sassoon. Aylieff, who lived opposite Kew, describes the project as her most challenging yet, exploring the limits of Jingdezhen porcelain while drawing on Kew's botanical illustrations.