“Duffy’s playful attitude to materials and situations counterbalances a very serious social conscience and political intent. The themes of his work include post-colonialism, media, cultural appropriation, and social, individual and collective responsibilities.”
— Alice Maher
“It’s a challenge attempting to contain the mercurial vision of Bryan Gerard Duffy, and there is nothing ‘idle’ in the scope and ambition on display here. Ultimately, Duffy is a storyteller, and the interwoven narratives of Idle Walls are the makings of a weighty novel, on this occasion condensed into a short story.”
— Ian Wieczorek (artist, curator, critical commentator)

BIOGRAPHY

Bryan Gerard Duffy is a multi-disciplinary artist working in paint, sculpture, lens-based work, moving image and installation. He draws lines and also crosses lines, both physically and metaphysically while investigating psychological and physical displacement. He has collaborated with other artists, refugees and asylum seekers globally on a number of projects.

Duffy is now based in Mayo, and is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. He has continued toexhibit nationally and internationally, which includes upcoming solo shows in the Ballina Arts Centre, and the Courtyard Gallery at the National Museum of Ireland, Country Life. 

He was a recipient of the PLATFORM 31 award (2022), Mayo County Council Tyrone Guthrie Residency Award (2022), and the recipient of the Bolay Residency Award, Castlebar (2020). He has been awarded numerous of grants from the Arts Council of Ireland, including the Travel and Training award to participate in Artifariti Arts Festival in Algeria and Western Sahara (2017). Recent public art projects include the “Art Roundhouse” G.E.T.N.S. Commission, Galway, funded through the Department of Education Per Cent for Art Scheme (2020); and “The New Wing”, The Sacred Heart Hospital Commission, Castlebar, funded through the HSE Per Cent for Art Scheme, (2019). In 2021, he was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar.

Duffy has also been the recipient of multiple national and international awards for his films, including being shortlisted for the Best Irish Human Rights Short Documentary with “Sumud, Everyday Resistance” at the ICCL awards (2016), and receiving Bronze Medal Award at the Global Independent Film Awards, USA for his film “Delivery” (2021).

“Bryan Duffy’s work threw up more questions than answers. The complex issues relating to family, national identity and our relationship to the asylum-seeking process were all brought to the fore, but without the neat finish that one might hope for. This was a bold and ambitious engagement with current socio-political issues.”
— Michelle Browne, artist, curator and writer

© Bryan Gerard Duffy