Owen J. Duffy, Jr.

Exhibitions
Writing
Press


Owen Duffy, Ph.D. is the Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Asia Society Texas. Duffy comes to Asia Society Texas from St. John’s University’s Yeh Art Gallery where he served as its director from 2019 to 2022, leading the institution through physical renovations to the exhibition spaces and the creation of a new exhibition program around the theme of diplomacy. During his tenure he organized more than 20 exhibitions, including Lain Singh Bangdel: Moon over Kathmandu, the first solo museum exhibition outside Nepal of the country’s preeminent modern artist Lain Singh Bangdel (1919-2002). 

Duffy’s exhibitions have earned press in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, Brooklyn Rail, and Art in America, among others. In addition, Duffy has published scholarship on the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, and Nepali performance artist Ashmina Ranjit. Among other publications, his writing about contemporary art has appeared ArtReview, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Artforum, e-flux Education, frieze, Momus, Journal of Curatorial Studies, and BOMB. Recent curatorial projects at Asia Society Texas include Xu Bing: Word Alchemy, Vian Sora: Outerworlds (co-organized with the Speed Art Museum and Santa Barbara Museum of Art), and Hung Hsien: Between Worlds, which traveled to Asia Society Hong Kong.

From 2011-2016, Duffy studied at Virginia Commonwealth University, completing a dissertation in art history under the direction of Robert Hobbs on the topic of dematerialization. He also studied with the late Himalayan art scholar Dina Bangdel, as well as the late media theorist David Golumbia. After leaving Richmond, Duffy completed the 2016 Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course, and is an alumnus of Asia Art Archive in America’s Leadership Camp.

He can be reached via email at duffyoj [at] vcu.edu and on Instagram @owieduffy.