Louisville's Black Avant-Garde: William M. Duffy

JUNE 28, 2024 – SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

Location: Chellgren Gallery, Second Floor, North Building
Curator: Dr. fari nzinga

William M. Duffy’s upcoming solo exhibition is the second installment of the Louisville Black Avant-Garde series, highlighting local, historically significant Black visual artists active from 1950–1980. A lifelong artist, Duffy first began with painting, silk-screening, and drawing. However, after witnessing a car crash destroy a bank building’s marble column, he felt compelled to ask for remnants of the broken stone; from then on, he taught himself how to carve and sculpt through research, improvisation, and repetition. This retrospective exhibition spans over 4 decades of creativity and presents not only the sculpture that Duffy is known for, but also his drawings, paintings, and digital art. In addition to featuring works of fine art, this retrospective will also include commercial works commissioned by local community groups and works made over the course of his long career as an educator in the Jefferson County Public Schools – and done in collaboration with his students.

Learn more about William M. Duffy

Artist website: William M. Duffy, Sculptor (wmduffy.com)

Artist Press

2009 – Profile: William M. Duffy (leoweekly.com)

2016 – William M. Duffy | Kentucky Life | KET (youtube.com)

2017 – montage — Artebella — Louisville Visual Art (artebelladaily.org)

2019 – A Q&A with sculptor William M. Duffy (leoweekly.com)

2021 – (Un)Known Project announces its sculptor, William Duffy (leoweekly.com)

2022 – How local Black artists of the 1970s helped form Louisville’s art landscape today (lpm.org)

2023 – Louisville’s William Duffy shows another side to his art in drawing exhibit (lpm.org)