JOSS GRAHAM  brings a new strand to his gallery for Asian Art in London this year. Following on from his interest in contemporary craft  he has specially commissioned a leading Australian ceramicist Alexandra Copeland to work in Jingdezhen to hand paint a series of vases in blue and white, creating a vivid contemporary chapter to this age-old tradition. Alexandra Copeland has trained herself over a period of forty years in this technique.

The blue and white porcelain produced in China by Alexandra Copeland combines traditional cobalt blue painting with subject matter drawn directly from her life – portraits of Chinese people encountered in Jingdezhen; plants and insects from her garden and satirical comments on contemporary life; the circus and subjects that exaggerate normal life.

Alexandra Copeland has made frequent visits to Afghanistan every year since 1972, collecting and dealing in tribal rugs and textiles. She commissions Afghan women to weave carpets to her designs.