Brand New Gallery is pleased to present Snails, solo exhibition of London-based French artist Nicolas Deshayes.
Deshayes presents two huge modular and futuristic installations, one composed of eight big panels in plastic and aluminum, in which the mechanic and organic forms are molded together; the second, more sculptural one, transfers his work to a horizontal plane. To accentuate the artist’s interest towards the past, small friezes are placed in unreachable spots on the walls, fleeing from the spectator’s distracted sight, notifying the anachronistic past.
The discrepancy between the existence of disordered bodies in antithesis to aseptic obsessions to which we are exposed on a daily basis, interests Deshayes’ works which trigger an investigation through the manipulation of surfaces. The membranes of his pieces recall biological forms, denying the artificial materials and industrial techniques used during the production process.
Despite his preferred materials are commonly associated with minimalism, most of Deshayes’ works evoke organic and malleable forms. The artist molds its properties through chemical and industrial processes: anodized aluminum, vacuum formed plastic, molds and fusions are transformed into devices that generate synthetically colored futuristic works recalling the ‘80’s.
Nicolas Deshayes shapes hybrid sculptures, endowed with strong cultural and stylistic references, with a vigorous sense of hyper-materiality. His works combine mechanisms and materials that distort the ordinary, maintaining the human presence while embracing the lacquered aesthetic canons of the XXI century. While the human body is never directly included in his works, its qualities are always present, emphasizing the conflict between the permanence of materials, treated with a chemical and demiurgic approach, and the transience of the human body.
 
Nicolas Deshayes was born in 1983 in Nancy, France. After having obtained his bachelor at Chelsea College of Art and Design and a Master at the Royal College of Art, specializing in Sculpture, he participated to different exhibitions and art events in Europe and in the United States. Recently his works have been included in solo shows at Jonathan Viner Gallery in London and LISTE in Basel; group shows at the David Roberts Art Foundation, London, the Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and James Fuentes in New York. In the summer 2013 he will have his solo exhibition at S1 Artspace Museum in Sheffield. His works are included in important public and private collections such as the Saatchi Gallery in London. He lives and works in London.