Felicity Aylieff is an artist of international standing recognised for her research into large-scale ceramics. Working from her studio in Bath for more than three decades, she has more recently developed a collaborative relationship with factories in Jingdezhen, China, where she makes monumental pots. The surfaces of these pots explore contemporary translations of traditionally used techniques. Her work shows her passion for material and process through its use of colour, pattern and decorative techniques.
Education has always played a prominent role in her career. She was awarded a Professorship in Ceramics from Bath Spa University in 2000 and has been teaching Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art since 2001. She has work in numerous international private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and she is represented by Adrian Sassoon, London.
Born in Edlesborough, Bedfordshire, in 1954, Felicity Aylieff studied at Bath Academy of Art, 1972–8, gaining a first-class Honours degree in ceramics and textiles, followed by a teaching postgraduate year at Goldsmiths College 1978–9. She taught at Bedales School in Hampshire renowned for its art department and ‘progressive’ teaching philosophy, 1979–82 and was a regular visiting lecturer to numerous courses including Loughborough, Glasgow, Goldsmiths and Cardiff while also an associate lecturer in foundation and ceramic studies at Bath College of HE. She taught full-time 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’.
Felicity Aylieff has been a member of and an adviser on numerous committees, including the think tank for Year of the Artist in 2000 and The Crafts Council, 2002–4. Until recently she was a trustee of Contemporary Applied Arts and Chair of NACHE (National Association of Ceramics in Higher Education) She remains a trustee for the Craft Potters Charitable Trust and a board member of the acquisitions committee of the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham. Between 2003–4 she was adviser to Cleere Conservation, Coadestone, advising on the development of the material. As part of her personal remit to promote ceramics in education, she is adviser and coordinator of the ‘Discovery’ education programme for Ceramic Art London.
In 1995 Felicity set up a group studio for emerging ceramic artists in a disused saw mill in Bath, and in 2000 she restored an old chapel in Bath, which she shares as a studio with internationally renowned potter Takeshi Yasuda. Since 2006 she has been making work in China and recently co-founded the Red House Design Studio with Yasuda, 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 two 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 artist’s book, Out of China. She organised and chaired the international symposium ‘White Gold’ in 2006, a project funded by the Diawa Foundation.
Since joining the Ceramics & Glass programme at the RCA in 2001 as senior tutor, she has been responsible for its day-to-day organisation, course planning and strategy. She has been external examiner to the undergraduate courses at University of Wolverhampton, Cardiff University and University of Ulster and the MA course at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and University of Ulster, where she was also an examiner for a PhD in ceramics.
She was made a Fellow of the RCA in 2008.