Lenny Duffy: Finding humour in the everyday
Image: Installation view of Lenny Duffy's artworks featured in ArtRage: The 2025 selection. Photo: QVMAG.
For Lenny Duffy, art starts with a simple idea: what if you took language literally?
The result is a series of playful, sharply observed works that turn everyday phrases into visual punchlines. Combining cartoon-style drawing with handwritten captions, Lenny’s ArtRage pieces – Shooting star, Crash at my place, and Fish tank – invite viewers to pause, look twice, and then smile.
“I want the work to feel light-hearted but clever,” he says. “Just enjoying those small absurdities you notice in everyday life.”
Lenny’s approach is grounded in visual puns – taking familiar expressions and reimagining them in unexpected ways. It’s a concept that feels immediately accessible, but beneath the humour is a strong sense of control and intention. His compositions are carefully balanced, with loose watercolour washes layered beneath crisp pen detailing.
“It’s about that mix,” he explains. “Keeping the energy of the paint, but also having that sharpness in the drawing.”
Image: Lenny Duffy, Shooting star 2025. Watercolour and pen, 53.4 x 42 cm. Photo: supplied.
This balance is something the examiners recognised, awarding Lenny the Visual Art 3 Examiners’ Choice Award. They praised the “quirky and clever nature” of his work, noting his ability to seamlessly combine text and image to create moments of surprise and wit.
Influenced by the cartoons he grew up with, as well as artists like Glen Baxter and the immediacy of street art, Lenny’s style feels both familiar and distinctly his own. There’s a sense of spontaneity to the work – but also a clear understanding of how to guide the viewer’s eye, and when to deliver the punchline.
Despite the confidence in his finished pieces, Lenny describes his process as relaxed and exploratory. Sketches often begin in the margins of school notebooks – “usually instead of actual notes,” he admits – before developing into more resolved ideas.
“I like to keep things simple,” he says. “Just working through ideas and seeing what sticks.”
Image: Lenny Duffy, Fish tank 2025. Watercolour and pen, 53.4 x 42 cm. Photo: supplied.
That openness has been key to his practice, especially as this is his first time working extensively with watercolour. Rather than aiming for perfection, Lenny leans into experimentation – allowing mistakes to shape the outcome.
“Don’t be afraid to scrap ideas if they’re not working,” he advises. “Just stay open to where it can go.”
Balancing subjects including Maths, Music, and English alongside Visual Art, Lenny brings the same steady curiosity to his creative work as he does to his studies. It’s this combination – discipline paired with a sense of play – that gives his work its distinctive voice.
Image: Lenny Duffy, Crash at my place 2025. Watercolour and pen, 53.4 x 42 cm. Photo: supplied.
Having visited ArtRage since starting high school, being included in the exhibition – and recognised with an award – marks a significant moment.
“It’s a massive honour,” he says. “And really exciting to see the work up in a gallery.”
Looking ahead, Lenny hopes to continue building on his practice, exploring new materials while refining the balance between humour, image, and idea.
For now, his work offers something refreshingly simple: a chance to laugh, to look closer, and to find meaning in the unexpected connections between words and images.
Explore Lenny's work below.
Explore more of ArtRage: The 2025 selection