By KLTV Newsdesk –

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is set to launch two new exhibitions on 5 April 2025, featuring the works of two renowned female artists, Felicity Aylieff and Laura Ellen Bacon.

These exhibitions will present monumental ceramic and woven sculptures, offering visitors a unique artistic experience against the park’s scenic landscape.

Felicity Aylieff: Expressions in Blue

5 April – 14 September 2025

Felicity Aylieff, Expressions in Blue at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Photo © Jeff Eden, 2024. Courtesy of RBG Kew.

Felicity Aylieff’s Expressions in Blue is a striking solo exhibition showcasing monumental sculptural works in porcelain.

Created in Jingdezhen, China, these hand-thrown ceramic vessels and towering monoliths are painted with rich cobalt blue oxide using dynamic brushstrokes.

The largest of these pieces reach an impressive five metres in height, combining technical mastery with artistic spontaneity.

The exhibition features seven large porcelain works and a collection of smaller pieces in The Weston Gallery, alongside two towering obelisks displayed outdoors.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to view photographs and a film documenting Aylieff’s intricate making process, as well as a selection of her distinctive mark-making tools, including giant horsehair brushes used to create energetic surface patterns.

Aylieff, who has spent two decades working with specialist craftspeople in Jingdezhen, integrates traditional Chinese porcelain techniques with contemporary artistic expression.

She describes her reinterpretation of the classic blue and white porcelain aesthetic as ‘new Ming.’

Limited-edition ceramic beakers featuring Aylieff’s signature cobalt surface decoration have been produced exclusively for YSP, each individually hand-thrown and painted in Jingdezhen.

These unique pieces, priced at £75, support YSP’s ongoing mission to provide meaningful artistic experiences.

Laura Ellen Bacon: Into Being

5 April – 7 September 2025

Laura Ellen Bacon. Photo © Alun Callender. Courtesy the artist and Hignell Gallery.

Into Being is an immersive, site-specific woven willow sculpture by Derbyshire-based artist Laura Ellen Bacon.

Designed in response to the 18th-century Chapel’s architecture, the intricate work extends six metres into the nave and climbs three metres up the wall, evoking organic forms such as cocoons and burrows.

Bacon, who primarily works alone, constructed the piece on-site at YSP over eight weeks using sustainable Somerset willow and fallen beech branches from the park.

Her unique weaving technique, developed over 20 years, allows her to ‘draw’ into space, creating abstract installations that are both contemplative and tactile.

The exhibition will also feature smaller sculptures in the vestry and on the balcony, including Contact (2021), a wall-based work crafted from stripped willow, and Companion (2024), a floor-based sculpture.

At the close of the exhibition, Into Being will be dismantled, and its materials repurposed to support local wildlife habitats, reinforcing Bacon’s commitment to sustainability.

Both exhibitions offer visitors an extraordinary opportunity to engage with large-scale contemporary sculptures that blend technical innovation with natural inspiration.