Paloma Proudfoot
Present Tense
27 January – 28 April 2024
Somerset
About the Artist
Paloma Proudfoot works within a variety of media, including sculpture, clothes making, text and performance, drawing together personal narratives, historical research and contemporary references.
Proudfoot’s work often evokes an uneasy paradox between the human body and its artificial double, exploring the gendered history of fields such as medical anatomical models, shop window mannequins and tailoring. Informed by her background in clothes making, Proudfoot’s artistic process mirrors flat pattern-cutting, initially working with paper templates before realising the work in glazed ceramic, glass, metal and textiles.
Juxtaposing the idiosyncrasies of these craft techniques with the hard-edged rhythms of factory production and intricate biomorphic forms, Proudfoot’s work produces an uncanny realisation of the limits and vulnerabilities of the human body. Seeking to articulate amorphous feelings of shame, grief and strength, she delves into the metaphorical and narrative potential of materials.
In 2022, Paloma Proudfoot’s commissioned work ‘Grief is recognized as a friend,’ was featured in Bold Tendencies in London, UK. Proudfoot’s solo exhibitions include: ‘The Three Living and The Three Dead,’ Soy Capitan Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2023); Solo booth with Soy Capitan Gallery, Artissima Art Fair, Turin, Italy (2023); and ‘The Memory Theatre,’ Bosse and Baum Gallery, London, UK (2022). Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Contested bodies,’ Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, UK (2023); ‘Unruly Bodies,’ Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, UK (2023); ‘In Watte und Nadeln—Konturen von Trauer (Contours of Grief),’ Galerie im Koernerpark, Berlin (2023); Group booth with Soy Capitan Gallery, Art Duesseldorf, Germany (2023); and ‘Preconscious Landscape,’ Ainaliyn Space at Exposed Art Projects, London, UK (2023).
Proudfoot holds an MFA from Royal College of Art, London (2017). She has an upcoming solo exhibition at The Lowry Museum in Manchester, UK later this year.
