ON VIEW
Bronwyn Katz, Markings of buried gold (2017), Salvaged wire and mattress lining; 186 x 151 x 25 cm, Courtesy l'artista e Fondazione Bonollo
cruated by Nicolas Deshayes, texts by Kyla Mcdonald
13.09.2025 > 01.11.2025
Opening hours | Thursady 2:00 > 7:00 pm, Friday and Saturday 10:30 am >12:30 pm – 2:00 > 7:00 pm Free admission.
Nicolas Deshayes expresses himself through sculpture, which he explores using a practice that is partly gestural and organic, and partly industrial. His work investigates the form and materiality of bodies, seen as physical presences, and what lies beneath their surface. Since the beginning of his career, the artist has experimented with a wide range of materials from bronze to polyurethane foam, from cast iron to glazed ceramics using production methods learned from craftsmen and specialized factories.
Since 2017, Nicolas Deshayes, who is based in Dover, Kent, has developed strong ties with Italy, seeking out ideas, methods, and techniques still used by skilled artisans. One of his key stops in Italy is Nove, a town in the province of Vicenza known since the early 18th century for its ceramic production, which continues to be internationally recognized. What particularly interests the artist is the process of creating objects through mold casting, a technique the artisans of Nove have mastered to a high level.
Drawn to local, traditional techniques, the sculptor develops his practice and shapes his works through an ongoing process of experimentation with materials, forms, and subjects. The exhibition at the Foundation marks, for the first time, a tangible connection between the artist and the Vicenza area.
Nicolas Deshayes / artist
Nicolas Deshayes was born in Nancy, France, in 1983 and lives in Dover, Kent. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Galleria Monteverdi, Castiglioncello del Trinoro (2024); Modern Art, London (2022); Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire (2022); Le Creux de l’Enfer, Thiers (2021); FRAC Grand Large – Hauts-de-France, Dunkirk (2021); E-WERK Luckenwalde (2019); and Tate St Ives (2015). He has taken part in recent group exhibitions at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (2025); Compton Verney, Warwickshire (2024); Stavanger Art Museum (2023); MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (2023); Falmouth Art Gallery (2021); Belgrade Biennial (2020); Ca’ Pesaro, Venice (2019); Museion, Bolzano (2019); Frac Île-de-France, Bussy-Saint- Martin (2018); Fridericianum, Kassel (2015); and Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2015).
In 2016, he won the first edition of the Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize with the work Dear Polyp. In 2014, he was artist-in-residence at Tate St Ives. Deshayes’ works are held in the collections of the Arts Council Collection in London, the Stavanger Art Museum, the Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris, FRAC Grand Large – Hauts-de-France in Dunkirk, FRAC des Pays de la Loire in Nantes, Mona – Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, and Tate, London. The artist is currently showing in the solo exhibition The Natural World at Modern Art, London.