BIOGRAPHY
Bryan Gerard Duffy is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist working in paint, sculpture, lens-based work, moving image and installation. (b. 1985) Having graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2009, Duffy is now based full time in the West of Ireland. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, which includes the group show NÖDOK 2024, Dokumentationszentrum für moderne Kunst Niederösterreich, Lower Austria (2024), and the RHA. Recent solo shows include Hung Out to Dry, Ballina Arts Centre (2025); Idle Walls, GOMA Gallery of Modern Art, Waterford (2024); and Idle Walls, the Custom House Studios and Gallery, Westport (2024).
Duffy was the recipient of an Interface Residency Award, Galway (2025) with participation in Galway and Catalonia, Barcelona; he was the recipient of the Krems AiR Residency award, Austria (2024); the PLATFORM 31 award (2022) from Local Arts Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland; the Mayo County Council Tyrone Guthrie Residency Award (2022+2026); and the recipient of the Bolay Residency Award, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Ireland (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).
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 Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) awards (2016); Best Human Rights film at the Wexford Documentary Film Festival (2021), while receiving Bronze Medal Award at the Global Independent Film Awards for his film “Delivery” (2021). Other awards include Special Mention Award at the Waterford Film Festival (2016); Merit Award at the Accolade Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA (2016) and the Award of Recognition at the Hollywood International Independent Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA (2016). Nominations include Best Short Documentary at the New York City Short Documentary Film Festival (2021); Scandinavian International Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland (2016); Sydney World Film Festival, Australia (2016); Ouchy Film Awards, Switzerland (2016); The 14th Resistance International Film Festival, Tehran, Iran (2016); Short Pole Film Festival, London, England (2016).
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Hung Out to Dry, Ballina Arts Centre, 2025 Idle Walls, GOMA Gallery of Modern Art Waterford, 2024 Idle Walls, Custom House Studios and Gallery, Westport, 2024 The Fabric of Society, National Museum of Ireland Countrylife, 2022 The Fool by the Roadside, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, 2017 Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Custom House Studios and Gallery, Westport, 2016 The Fool by the Roadside, Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo, 2014
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NODOK 2024, Dokumentationszentrum für moderne Kunst, Niederösterreich, Austria, 2024 In-House, Custom House Studios and Gallery, Westport, 2023 Re:Form, 126 Gallery Galway, 2023 RHA Royal Hibernian Academy Annual, 2023 Clifden Arts Festival, Interface Innagh, Galway, 2022 Straight Out of Ireland, Philadelphia, USA, 2022 “Elaborate and Methodical”, curated by Nuala Clarke. Ballina Fringe Festival, Ballina, 2021 Mayo Artists Show, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, 2017 Mayhem, Livestock, The Complex, Dublin, 2016 The State We're In, The MART Gallery, Dublin, 2016 Saw Dust, The MART Gallery, Dublin, 2015 Off the Wall, Atlantic Technical University Mayo, 2015 Mayo Artists Show 2014, Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar Parallax Off-Site Event, MK International Festival 2010, Milton Keynes Gallery, England, 2010 Footsteps towards Freedom, Mayo County Library, Castlebar, 2010
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Points of Contact, Interface Innagh, Galway and Catalonia, Spain, 2025 Young Model, The Model, Sligo, 2023 Art Roundhouse, Galway Educate Together National School, 2021 High Impact, Linehall Arts Centre, Castlebar, 2020 The New Wing, Sacred Heart Hospital, Castlebar, 2019 Seeker (World's Largest Ball of Cellophane tape), Claremorris Open Exhibition COE, 2017 Give your Voice Wings, National Museum of Ireland Countrylife, 2016 Disappeared, Tindouf Refugee Camps, Algeria, 2010 Deedpoll Namechange, Ireland and Serbia 2009
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“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.”
“By changing his name, the artist is taking on the identity of ‘the other’, challenging our preconceptions of who or what it is to be Irish, and our relationship to the changing face of Ireland.”
“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.”
© Bryan Gerard Duffy