Critical Mass: As Galleries Move, Gay and High to Become Columbus’ Next Arts District
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After two years of therapy, the new Lindsay Gallery and a new challenge are just what his doctor recommends, Lindsay says. “Let’s face it: I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m at a point in my life where I can retire if I want to. But why would I? When Jeff Edwards came to me and spelled out this vision, I thought, this is exactly what I need,” Lindsay says. “Having a small business is extremely isolating sometimes, and this business in particular is tough. But walking into this opportunity, with these two by my side, is the best scenario I could possibly ask for.”
As one of the premier folk and outsider art gallerists in the United States, Lindsay regularly travels to art hubs like New York City, where he goes every year as a dealer at the Outsider Art Fair.
People there seek him out, looking for pieces by William Hawkins and Elijah Pierce, two Columbus artists revered in the folk/self-taught art scene. With his deep grasp of the national art scene, Lindsay says what is being built by Edwards at Gay and High streets is something special.
Columbus Monthly
2024
Recovered from traumatic fall, Duff Lindsay set to reopen gallery
…The decision to reopen Lindsay Gallery was more fluid. Prior to the fall, Lindsay had been in contact with Barnes about exhibiting in the space, and he let the artist help dictate the timeline for opening the show. The approach reflects one Lindsay intends to adopt moving forward, with the gallery hosting fewer exhibitions and allowing artists to display for longer stretches of time…
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MatterNews.org
2023
Still An Outsider
…Rather, Lindsay has built a base of local and national collectors who trust his eye for work made by self-taught artists — a designation Lindsay prefers, since it can encompass the overlapping worlds of folk art and so-called outsider art (“My customers, in large part, still identify themselves as outsider art collectors,” he said). Still, even “self-taught” doesn’t fully describe the artists who have exhibited at Lindsay Gallery over the years…
…Lindsay dove into the world of folk art, reading everything he could get his hands on and meeting as many artists as he could. When he traveled, he visited galleries that specialized in folk art, which led him to the broader outsider art scene. “I loved the idea that in its purest form, the art wasn’t being made to be the flavor of the month in the big-time New York galleries,” he said. “It was being made by ordinary people just out of the need to express something.”
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Columbus Monthly
Dec 2019
Q&A with Duff Lindsay of Lindsay Gallery
…Among the concentration of Short North art galleries, Lindsay Gallery stands out, catching the eye of many passerby. While most galleries showcase the work of trained artists, Lindsay Gallery specializes in self-taught art that often lacks traditional art techniques. For 17 years, the gallery has highlighted a broad range of works by artists from around Ohio and the country.
The passion project of Duff Lindsay, the gallery sprang from Lindsay’s eclectic personal collection of self-taught and folk art. We sat down with the veteran of the local creative community for a conversation about Lindsay’s career change, the Columbus arts scene and more.
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WOSU Columbus Neighborhoods
Q&A with Duff Lindsay of Lindsay Gallery
Dec 2016
Beacon for the Outsider
Prestigious gallery reveals richness of untutored talent
…Lindsay left the news business in 1999 to open a gallery dedicated to the work of artists that have been stamped with a variety of labels over the years, including folk, naïve, brut, outsider and visionary. The common factor among these artists is generally a strong drive to create the work without any formal training, which sometimes includes the use of unconventional materials.
Many of the artists Lindsay represents were creating artwork independently for years before they ended up showing in a gallery, possibly because they’d never considered that it would appeal to anyone outside of their families, or that there is a strong, existing market for self-taught work in the art world. “Discovery,” says Lindsay, is the wrong word for the process of introducing these artists to the collectors’ market, but he has been responsible for shining a new light on many artists’ existing body of work, creating new opportunities for them.
“This is a messy genre,” says Lindsay. “More and more, many of us are referring to it as simply ‘non-mainstream.’”
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ShortNorth.com
2015