© Claire Lawrie
Artist Statement
Alison Poon (b.1996 UK) creates ceramic, rattan and found object sculptures that focus on her mixed-heritage background. With Chinese family in Malaysia, Alison’s practice looks to identity, domestic spaces, and cultural interactions, through narrative-heavy work, with the aim of creating a space of belonging.
Alison creates scenes that are part observed and part fiction, collaging together the lived experience juxtaposed with tradition. These scenes feature repeated themes of reconstruction, and the in-between, taking inspiration from architecture and street scenes in Malaysia and China. Playful figures inhabit the sculptures and etchings, pulled from Alison’s personal archive of photographs. These characters act as interlopers and a metaphor for the diasporic individual.
Alison is a 2026 recipient of the Gilbert Bays Award for Emerging Sculpture, awarded by the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Current & Upcoming Exhibitions AND PROJECTS
Inside Out, London, Group Show.
Curated by Lillie Ayers & Melina Merlin
Lea Bridge Library Pavillion, E10 7HU
1st July - 31st July 2026
PV 1st July 6-8pm
General Opening: Monday - Friday 9am - 7pm, Saturday 9am - 6pm, Sunday closed.
Research Project: Reviving the Traditional South-East Asian Craft of Rattan in Contemporary Sculpture. (July - September 2026)
Funded by Arts Council England - National Lottery Projects Grants
Selected Exhibitions
2026 -
Garden Creatures Twilight Interiors, London Group Show
Restoration & Revival: Elevation of the Hand-Crafted Surface London Craft Week x Painter Stainers, London, Group Show
London Art Fair - Royal Society of Sculptors X TM Lighting London Art Fair, London UK, Booth Group Show
2025 -
A Constructed Home Tache Gallery, London, Solo Show
MA Degree Show (Presenting work as a Fellow), City and Guilds of London, London UK, Group Show
Holmfirth Art Week – CTRL Shift, CTRL Studio, Yorkshire UK, Group Show
Dulwich Arts Festival – Woo Jin Joo and Alison Wing Yin Poon, London UK, Duo Show
Seem Both Distant and So Close, Warbling Collective, London UK, Group Show
2024 -
Clifford Chance Postgraduate Printmaking in London 2024, Clifford Chance LLP, London UK, Group Show
Graduate Show Exhibition 2024, Candid Arts Centre, London UK, Group Show
MA Degree Show, City and Guilds of London, London UK, Group Show
ABG Emerging Collection 01, Alice Black Gallery, London, UK, Group Show
Apocalyptic Changes of State, Brushes with Greatness, London, UK, Group Show
The Entranced Essence, RuptureXIBIT, London, UK, Group Show
2022 -
StART Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, Group Show
See|Me Roots, Gallery Arte Azulejo, New York USA, Group Show
2021-22 Well Well Well, Leyden Gallery, London, UK, Group Show
2018 -
Chelsea College of Arts X New Dawn Risk, New Dawn Risk, London UK, Group Show
Undergraduate Summer Show 2018, Chelsea College of Arts, London UK, Group Show
Interim, Chelsea College of Arts, London UK, Group Show
2017 -
Translations, Chelsea College of Arts, London UK, Group Show
Pt: 2 // who dis?, 202 Gallery, London UK, Group Show
Chelsea Second Year Show, Triangle Gallery, London UK, Group Show
50 49'25.0"N 0 02'37.3"E, South Downs National Park, Sussex UK, Group Show
2016 -
Territories of Practice: (Oxy)Moron, Cookhouse Gallery, London UK, Group Show,
Education
2023 -2024
MA Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School
Recipient of the Leverhulme Trust Art Scholarship
Recipient of the Decorative Surfaces Fellowship 2024-2025
2018 - 2019
MA Anthropology and Cultural Politics, Goldsmith’s College, University of London
2015 - 2018
BA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
2014 - 2015
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Awards and features
2026
Research Project: Reviving the Traditional South-East Asian Craft of Rattan in Contemporary Sculpture. Funded by Arts Council England - National Lottery Projects Grants.
Gilbert Bays Award for Emerging Sculptors, Royal Society of Sculptors
2025
Ceramics Now - Alison Wing Yin Poon: A Constructed Home at Tache Gallery, London
Five Exhibitions to See in London in November 2025 - Art Plugged
Inspirit with Jumoke Fashola - BBC Radio London
Glass Magazine - Alison Poon’s Debut Solo Exhibition is a Powerful and Playful Exploration of Home
Heni News - Alison Wing Yin Poon
Art Plugged - Alison Wing Yin Poon: A Constructed Home
Artist of the Month Circles of Art, February 2025
2024 Decorative Surfaces Fellowship at City and Guilds of London Art School, supported by the Painter-Stainers’ Company.
2023 Leverhulme Trust Art Scholarship, City & Guilds of London Art School.
2021 Friend of the Artist Studio Project online publication.
2018 Rossi Asiaghi Art Award, 1st Prize.
2018 ArtsThread, June: Chelsea Degree Show 2018: Fine Art BA Hons.
2014 Living Edge Magazine, March Issue.