Nicole Farhi, Folds, Beaux Arts Gallery London

After a long, successful career as a fashion designer, Nicole Farhi bid farewell seven years ago in order to devote herself to sculpture. Her attention no longer focused on garments, it is drawn instead to the bodies they clothe. In the last decade, Farhi has exhibited two solo series—one of faces, the other of the human hand. Her latest show, and largest to date, is still more intimate.

Comprising over 20 sculptures, Folds explores what Farhi calls, ‘the powerful beauty of flesh, curves and the sexual energy large women have.’ Each piece depicts different parts of a woman’s body; every piece features full, folding flesh. Farhi’s works began as plaster casts of women’s bodies, before being rendered in jesmonite and bronze. This technique allows her to create lifelike fragments.

Hebe by Nicole Farhi, 2018

The gallery's director, Patricia Singh, praised Farhi’s ‘exquisite portrayals of the female form – which are very different to those cast by the fashion industry’. Having spent so long dressing slender figures, Farhi has chosen to celebrate feminine flesh, which is so often overlooked by haute couture. ‘We feel very strongly that she has something new to say,' Singh states.

Farhi’s starry contacts feature in her art: her first show included portraits of friends Anna Wintour, Judi Dench and Helena Bonham-Carter. Several of the casts in Folds were moulded from the bodies of her sitters – Lucian Freud’s former muse, Sue Tilley makes an appearance. The show is also noticeably influenced by Farhi’s mentor Sir Eduardo Paolozzi –one of the most significant British sculptors of the 20th century, whose bronze statue of Sir Isaac Newton sits outside the British Library. Solo this show may be, but its collaborative spirit is evident and inviting.