Ricardo Duffy: Art as Political and Social Commentary

The Laguna Beach artist’s vision combines keen knowledge of our country’s history with political and social awareness, particularly related to his Indigenous/Chicano background

Artist Ricardo Duffy immerses his finely crafted paintings, illustrations, prints and sculptures with political and social commentary. With his keen observations of our country's history, hearkening back to our foundations, and to the belief in Manifest Destiny, the divine right of white Americans to overtake our country, he aims to create awareness of our social ills and indifferences through his artmaking,

With his indigenous, Mexican, Irish, Jewish ancestry, Duffy was raised by his Lithuanian grandmother who encouraged his artistry from a young age. With this background, along with his fierce interest in the world around him, he creates paintings, drawings, prints, ceramics and mixed media work that have social and political perspectives, particularly as they relate to people of Indigenous and Mexican ancestry.

The New Order (1996) Screenprint

He also infuses his work with relevant symbols of our world gone amuck, including those referencing George Washington, the Statue of Liberty, George Bush, mid twentieth century ads and Donald Trump. “My artwork is a visual statement about the diaspora of the first people of Turtle Island (the Americas) through the lens of genocide and terror. It is social commentary, infused with history and mythology, about the struggles for freedom in Latin America and other nations, and bears the same social perspective as the works of José Guadalupe Posada, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera.”

Born in Monterey Park in SoCal in 1951, Duffy was an unbridled, talented creative child and teenager. Early on, he embraced in his work our political and social climate, while referencing the historical influences that led to these circumstances. He studied ceramics at Ventura College and at Cal State, Fullerton, where he worked with ceramic superstar Jerry Rothman. He opened his own ceramics studio in Costa Mesa, creating whimsical, colorful lamps, and tri-footed clay art works, wheel thrown, hand built and glazed, influenced by pre-Columbian vessels, inspired by his mentors Rothman and John Stokesbury.

Celestial Observation (2011) digital print

A major inspiration in Duffy’s life is his fascination with “his Mexican and Indigenous roots and a deep questioning of how these borderlands, sited and embodied, had come to be incredibly fraught,” explains Tatiana Reinoza in, “Reclaiming the Americas: Latinx Art and the Politics of Territory” © 2023. He was also influenced by the social movements of the 1960s and 70s, including the 1970 Chicano Moratorium when thousands of young people in East L.A. demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

Duffy apprenticed three times at Self Help Graphics & Art, a print atelier and studio in East L.A., in the 1980s and 90s. As a student of Sister Karen Boccalero, he began creating the politically inspired work that he is known for—work that diverged in theme from most other prints, especially Chicano-themed prints, that Sister Karen was overseeing. He produced more than 200 prints there, most infused with electric colors and expressive rendering. His screeprint, The New Order (1996), created there, was displayed at the L.A. County Museum of Art in 2000 in exhibition, “Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900-2000.”

Blending a pop art style with traditional landscape painting, The New Order conveys Manifest Destiny. The piece 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.

His Celestial Observation (2011) digital print features an Olmeca head (from the ancient Mesoamerican civilization) wearing a space helmet and space suit. “We all still look to the stars for inspiration,” he says. Nu Americana (2013) is a prototype of the American flag with a multi-colored horizontal Mexican rug replacing the flag’s stripes. Monsanto Come Caca (2016) on a Corvette fiberglass hood tells the world that eating foods provided by Monsanto is akin to eating shit.

Monsanto Come Caca) (2016) Acrylic paint plus spray can stencil on 1964 Corvette Fiberglass Hood

Art pieces making fun of Donald Trump include Bugged (2017) of his face within a cockroach body, reflecting his remarks that President Obama was wiretapping (bugging) Trump Tower in 2016; and the 2017 Faker Oaths, a print on aluminum, featuring Trump with wig and Quaker hat.

Duffy also pursues his lifelong love for figurative drawing, creating canvasses of all sizes. Several pieces are rooted in Pre-Columbian artifacts, history and myths. Others visually express the travails, divisions and political struggles in the U.S. and Latin America. “If we are to survive pollution, war, totalitarianism, religious fanaticism, drug abuse, annihilation of the Earth's natural resources, we must create a universal consciousness in humans,” he says.

Bugged (2017) Print on Aluminum Alloy from Fighter Jet

He has worked on many large-scale public art projects, several incorporating murals and mosaic floors. These include “Serpent of Knowledge” (1996) at the Lincoln Heights Branch Library, L.A., featuring a hybrid plumed serpent dragon to honor the Latino and Asian communities; and East Los Angeles Civic Center Park playground seating installations (2005) with handcrafted tiles of whimsical Mayan figures skateboarding. In 2012, he mounted for artist Richard Wyatt a porcelain tile mural installation, “Hollywood Jazz,” of more than 2,500 tiles, at Capitol Records in Hollywood. Also in 2012, he was Mural Oversight Manager for the restoration of 20 murals at Chicano Park under the Coronado Bay Bridge, San Diego. The project received several honors including the San Diego Cultural Landscape Award, and the California Governor’s Historic Preservation Award.

Not God’s Domain (1996) Acrylic and oil painting

Ricardo Duffy’s other public artworks include “Cosmic Fusion,” consisting of ceramic medallions of the Mesoamerican symbols, the flying heart, flaming torch, and raining cloud for the city of Inglewood, CA; and large murals of Mount Baldy and Tongva imagery for the Ontario Airport. “Public art murals are of a special interest to me,” he explains. “They speak to everyday people walking or driving by as they go about their daily lives. A colorful, large mural can stop people in their tracks and bring a range of emotions from awe to introspection. My public art is site specific with historical relevance that speaks to viewers. I take great pains to study the sites and communities, and I work in collaboration with all stakeholders.”

Duffy’s artwork is in many collections, including: Blanton Museum of Art, Center for the Study of Political Graphics Archive, El Instituto Cultural Mexicano, Huntington Library, J. Paul Getty Museum Archive, Laguna Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Orange County Museum of Art.