Leo Duff

About Leo

Hangzhou, December 2014

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Leo Duff works as a maker of images and objects to do with A Sense of Place.

Her current project examines the heritage of Montenegro by looking at the changing population of the past and present through textiles, clothing, domestic and personal objects and ceramics, in use and held in museum collections. Work on this has taken place as an Artist in Residence at UCA Farnham 2014/15 + 2017/2018 and continues at Songbird Ceramics, Co Antrim and her studio in London.

Heritage, history and investigation of place and object have developed from interpretations of the built environment. Urban, rural, coastal landscapes and the environments of various forms of architecture from the vernacular to the grandiose, from pre-history to the most contemporary constructions have taken her over the world on commissioned work and to develop themes for exhibition in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, USA, Korea, China and Taiwan. She was co-director of art+archaeology and has been on four residencies to do with the Stonehenge Riverside Project on excavations and at Salisbury Museum. A residency at China Women’s University Beijing looked at plastic objects in the domestic environment. Her new project picks up this thread with flotsam and jetsam from beaches in Montenegro.

Her past association with the tradition of British Illustration led to involvement with many educational establishments, her academic career developing alongside her interest in drawing. Her leadership and innovation in the arena of Drawing Research, pedagogy and practice in a broad range of disciplines holds an international footing with engagements in East Asia, Middle East, India as well as closer to home. Leo Duff’s academic expertise on global aspects of Art and Design higher education has also influenced her work, with subjects inspired by observations made on visits to Korea, Taiwan and particularly China, which she visits annually.