Pillow Talk - Nicolas Deshayes & Paloma Proudfoot

Friday 23rd January - Sunday 22nd March 2026

In Pillow Talk Paloma Proudfoot and Nicolas Deshayes present a conversation of new and recent sculpture in ceramic and cast metal. Presented in the crypt-like exhibition space of Quench, the pieces come together as a collection of effigies, mementos, anatomical models or reliquaries.

The works in Pillow Talk render the texture of flesh, both human and animal, together with cloth. The corporeal and the man made are blurred and entwined in intimate moments that examine the body as a model, the body as a vessel and the body at rest.

Nicolas Deshayes (b 1983 Nancy, France) is an artist based in Dover. He studied Sculpture at Chelsea College of Art (2005), and The Royal College of Art (2009).

Recent solo exhibitions include Fondazione Bonollo, Thiene, IT (2025); Modern Art, London, UK (2025, 2022, 2019, 2016); Monteverdi Gallery, Castiglioncello del Trinoro, IT (2024), Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire, FR (2022), FRAC Grand-Large (2021) and Le Creux de L’enfer (2021). Recentl and forthcoming group exhibitions include: Kunstverein Hamburg (2026); FRAC Pays de la Loire (2025); Sainsbury Centre (2025); Compton Verney (2025); MKG Gallery (2023); Belgrade Biennial, (2021) Museion, Bolzano (2019); Museo d’Arte Moderna Ca’Pesaro, Venice (2021); Fridericianum, Kassel (2016); and Kestnergesselschaft, Hanover (2015). His work is in the Arts Council Collection, Tate, FRAC Grand Large, FRAC des Pays de La Loire, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, Stavanger Art Museum and MoNA, Hobart.

Paloma Proudfoot (b 1992, London) is an artist living and working in London, with an MA (Sculpture) from the Royal College of Art.

Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include: Collective, Edinburgh (2026); Fondazione Bonollo, Thiene, Italy (2025); The Lowry, Salford, UK (2024); The Approach, London (2025 and 2024); Soy Capitan Gallery, Berlin (2023, 2021 and 2019); and Sans Titre, Paris (2019). Recent and forthcoming group exhibitions include: Sainsbury Centre, UK (2026); Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Switzerland (2025); Hayward Touring, Various UK venues (2024-25); Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France (2024); Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2024); Goldsmiths CCA (2023); Bold Tendencies, London (2022); Kunst im Tunnel, Dusseldorf (2022); and Southbank Centre, London (2021). 

Proudfoot has undertaken residencies at Tramway, Glasgow; Moly Sabata, France; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (with Stasis) and the Thun Ceramic Residency, Italy. In 2023 she was nominated with Stasis for the Paul Hamlyn Award. Her work is in the Arts Council Collection.