Aidan Duffy

Art-O-Rama, Marseille

31 August - 3 September 2023

For Art-O-Rama 2023, South Parade presented a solo presentation by Aidan Duffy.

Aidan Duffy creates sculptures of rich texture, shape and structure that combine and fuse the natural and the synthetic; the organic and inorganic. He collects and uses an intriguing range of natural and industrially made materials: stone and driftwood, metals, pottery, furniture and other discarded or found objects. Sometimes materials lie in the studio for months before they are incorporated into a work - movement and making precipitated by a sudden intuition. But the process is not haphazard, there is control and precision. Initial drawings serve as a fluid departure for his studio practice - line and colour leading to compositional armatures of metals, jesmonite and resin with sprinkled pigment: form indivisible from colour.

Duffy’s sculptural syntax goes beyond definition, spanning the fine and decorative arts as well as domestic functionality. Despite the seemingly fortuitous way in which the material is found and made, these sculptures have a unity and coherence of form and meaning; suggesting a harmony between the body and the environment; and this, in turn, demonstrates the vulnerability and resilience of the world in which we live.

At Art-O-Rama, Aidan was also in conversation with Marco Galvan, in a series of encounters proposed by the online magazine Figure Figure.

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Aidan Duffy (b. 1995 in Glasgow, Scotland) now lives and works in London, having grown up between Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands. Recent selected solo exhibitions include young coin rite, South Parade, London, UK (2023); Raw Nerves, Hannah Barry, London, UK (2022); My Empty Shell, Ambrosia Projects, UK (2022); The Room, South Parade, London, UK (2022); Grotto, Ridley Road Project Space, London, UK (2022); Sole, curated by Rebecca Ackroyd, Becky’s Unit, London, UK (2020); Fashion Cafe, Kantine, Brussels, BE (2019); and Motte + Bailey, St. James Road, London, UK (2019). Duffy also contributes to various publications, such as the virtual magazine Bog. Upcoming exhibitions include a group show at Hannah Barry, London, UK and a solo exhibition at 243 Luz, Margate, UK (both 2023).