Jon Duff

Born in Oconomowoc, WI; Works in NY

BIO

Artist and curator Jon Duff is the person who can't "watch TV without criticizing every ad that comes up". Jon translates his acute feeling of our current state of overabundance, whether in skyscrapers that compete against one another or global express shipping, through apocalyptic landscapes of gaudy, plasticky commodities gone defunct. He takes great satisfaction crowding his canvas with each detailed object after object in this apocalyptic pile, building momentum towards the magic that emanates things for artists and Internet users alike.

Jon Duff (b. 1986, Oconomowoc, WI) received his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2012, and his BFA from the University of Minnesota in 2008. He is a 2011 alum of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and he attended the Triangle Artists’ Workshop in 2012. After graduating from MICA, Duff was a finalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Award in 2012. His work has been exhibited internationally and has been featured in numerous publications including New American Paintings, ArtMaze, Ambit and JOIA Magazine. Duff is currently employed as the Exhibitions and Art Collection Curator at Adelphi University in New York while he also pursues independent curatorial projects. Duff’s artwork combines science fiction and comedy in busy scenes that reflect our present condition of both overabundance and disorder. His work pokes fun at the human experience while offering an uncommon glimpse into the personal and psychological strains beneath the morass of the modern day to day.

You'll like Jon if: you can't decide if the original Start Trek or Next Gen is your favorite.

"Science fiction, humor and evolutionary psychology all greatly influence my work. I poke fun at the human experience through sculpture, painting and digital prints which express a disorderliness that is both humorous and apocalyptic. Through my works I consider and humorously act out the contemporary struggle between our individual humanist and our collective post-humanist values. I am drawing absurd comparisons between our biological drives and contemporary culture. I am communicating a humorous cynicism of our anthropocentric perspective. I am using the abilities I have as a crazy ape in a disordered world to act out and make discoveries."

See Our Artist Interview >