Duy Huynh
Professional artist and gallery owner
Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with a concentration in illustration, UNC Charlotte (1998)
Duy Huynh’s family came to the United States in 1981 as refugees from Vietnam, settling in southern California. He was five years old. Like many kids, he grew to love comic books and superheroes and soon developed his drawing skills. His first “commission” came from a classmate who asked him to draw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
“Payment was two dollars and chocolate milk for a week,” he told Associate Professor of Art History Jim Frakes.
But, as Duy writes in his artist bio, making art was not just about earning extra lunch money.
“More importantly for a kid that felt like an outcast, drawing became a means of transcending language barriers and cultivating connections.”
Duy’s family moved to Charlotte when he was a teenager, and he graduated from West Charlotte High School and came to UNC Charlotte to study illustration. He fondly remembers faculty such as Susan Brenner, Eric Anderson, and Jamie Franki (all now retired).
“The main lesson I learned from all of them was a love and respect for the creative process, regardless of the final result,” he told Frakes.
While at UNC Charlotte, he discovered a love for painting, and gravitated to professor Rod MacKillop, who became his mentor. Some of his paintings, like his contribution to the Generations 60th anniversary exhibition, are homages to Rod MacKillop.
After graduating, Duy launched a successful career as an artist, creating murals (including one for Panthers stadium), album and book cover art, and his delightful, surrealist paintings. In 2008, he and his wife opened the Lark & Key Gallery in Charlotte’s North Davidson Arts District (NoDa). The gallery moved to online and by appointment only in 2020 and represents more than 30 artists.
Examples of Duy’s distinctive work can be seen on campus in the upstairs hallway of the Popp Martin Student Center, where three of his paintings hang. These pieces reflect his favored themes of travel and transformation, and are similar to the work he has contributed to the Generations show.
“At the core of my work is a search for balance and continuity, usually between two or more mysteries,” Duy writes in his artist statement. “My characters often float (literally) somewhere between science and spirituality, memory and mythology, structure and spontaneity, ephemeral and eternal, humorous and profound, connectivity and non-attachment. The intent isn’t necessarily to provide enlightenment, but to celebrate the quest itself.”