Nicolas Deshayes entrusts his expressive language to sculpture, experimenting through a practice that is at once organically gestural and industrial. His research explores the form and materiality of bodies, understood as physical presences, and what occurs beneath their surface. Since the beginning of his career, the artist has worked with a wide range of materials — from bronze to expanding polyurethane foam, from cast iron to glazed ceramic — employing production methods learned from artisans and specialised factories.
Since 2017, Nicolas Deshayes, who is based in Dover, Kent, has developed strong ties with Italy, seeking out suggestions, methods and practices still preserved within artisanal traditions. Among the places central to this research is Nove, a town in the province of Vicenza internationally renowned for its ceramic production since the early eighteenth century. The artist is particularly interested in the process of mould casting, a technique in which the artisans of Nove are highly skilled practitioners.
Drawn to local and artisanal techniques, the sculptor develops his practice and shapes his works through a continuous process of experimentation with materials, forms and subjects. The exhibition at the Foundation marks, for the first time, the artist’s connection with the Vicenza area.