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Ricardo Duffy: Art as Political and Social Commentary Brings Together 40 Works from the Artist's Magnanimous Career
Duffy’s Vision of Life on the Edge Comes to Life in Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Photos and Mixed Media
The Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center (LBCAC) announces Ricardo Duffy: Art as Political and Social Commentary, the most in-depth examination of the artist’s work from nearly four decades. The exhibition, opening on Thursday, November 2, from 5 to 7 PM (followed by a concert at 7:30, featuring James Clay Garrison), brings together 40 of Duffy’s paintings, drawings, prints, photos and mixed media, mounted throughout four galleries in the historic second floor venue, which opened in 1973 as BC Space Gallery.
On view from November 2, to January 4, 2024, the exhibition focuses on his work from the 1990s to the present, the richest years of Duffy’s prolific career. During this time, he has created an oeuvre that addresses “his Mexican and Indigenous roots and a deep questioning of how these borderlands, sited and embodied, had come to be incredibly fraught,” according to art writer Tatiana Reinoza.
Duffy also infuses his work with symbols of our world gone amuck, including George Washington, the Statue of Liberty, George Bush, Donald Trump and mid twentieth century ads. “My artwork is a visual statement about the diaspora of the first people of Turtle Island through the lens of genocide and terror,” he explains. “It is social commentary, infused with history and mythology, about the struggles for freedom in Latin America and other nations.”
Exhibition Highlights
One of Duffy’s most important pieces in the show is The New Order, conveying Manifest Destiny through its Marlboro sign, appropriated from 20 th century ads. With a finely detailed Western landscape backdrop, the print contains a chalky faced George Washington with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, indicating his collusion with the Marlboro corporate vision. It includes the 1990 “Caution” immigration sign of a family running across the highway; an indigenous woman and child, running along Interstate 5; and the words, “PROP 187,” referencing a 1994 California ballot measure denying
public services to undocumented people. The print was displayed at LACMA in 2000.
Another piece is Monsanto Come Caca, of acrylic paint and spray can stencil on a Corvette Fiberglass Hood. It features a skeleton spreading seeds, expressing the effect of Monsanto herbicides that altered our food and destroyed our bodies.
Other controversial pieces in this exhibition include Under the Cross, a conceptual depiction of the overwhelming conquest and murder of the Indigenous people during the American mission system; Bugged, featuring Trump’s face within a cockroach body, reflecting his accusations in 2017 that President Obama had been wiretapping (bugging) Trump Tower in 2017; and In Your Face/LA, of a Cholo gangster in L.A., pointing a gun at the viewer’s face with a cityscape background.
This exhibition spotlights work that addresses life as seen through the prism of an artist who visually expresses the travails, divisions and political struggles in the U.S. Discussing his infusion of social and political beliefs in his work, Duffy explains, “I hope that my art makes people aware of the consequences of their actions.”
Ricardo Duffy: Art as Political and Social Commentary will open to the public on Thursday, November 2, from 5 to 7 PM. For additional information about viewing the exhibition, please call (949) 652-ARTS (2787), or write to info@lbculturalartscenter.org.
More about the concert featuring James Clay Garrison
Read the recent article about JCG
"James Clay Garrison has been performing since the 70s with legends like Eddie Van Halen, Ray Charles, Stephen Stills and Brian Wilson. His lifelong passion for music and instinct for perfectionism have made him a force in the industry for almost 50 years."
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