John Duff

John Duff has been making sculpture in a Chinatown loft since the 1970s. Using clay, cement, fiberglass, Turtle Wax, resin, and things people toss on the sidewalk, he turns them into something precious. Magical, even.

The exhibition spans decades, from work made in the 1960s to pieces finished just this year. Quiet forms, cobbled together with care. Hard materials seep into softness. Concrete plays with foam. Bicycle chains become a puddle of cement. Clam shells painted green and strung together with wire look like fishing nets on the docks. Or a necklace. Tough. Touching.

These stumbled-upon moments, transformed into something solid and lasting, feel like they could be around forever, or, like a lifetime, gone tomorrow. Really, they shouldn't be so beautiful. Yet here we are, wondering when we can see them again.

John Duff (b. Lafayette, Indiana, 1943) lives and works in New York City's Chinatown. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute before moving to the Lower East Side in 1967. Like his art, he's been woven into the fabric of New York City's art scene. Duff has lived in the same loft on Doyers Street since 1971.