Dornith Doherty

Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas is pleased to announce the opening of DELUGE, an exhibition of new photographs and hydrographs by Dornith Doherty. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition and includes an essay by Irene Klaver, PhD (available mid-September). An opening reception for the artist will be held September 8th, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. The exhibition continues through Saturday, November 10, 2018.

Since 2010, Texas has experienced record-breaking climatic extremes - both the single driest year and the 24 wettest months ever recorded. In response to these dramatic environmental events, Dornith Doherty was compelled to begin Mediated Forest, a project about the changes within the Trinity River basin north of the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Part of the Mediated Forest project is DELUGE, initiated by photographing areas repeatedly from 2015 to the present, tracking changes in the landscape during consecutive floods and their aftermaths. New large-scale photographs were made from the waters' edge, from a boat, and by wading into floodwaters. New hydrographs (water drawings) were made by canoeing into the flooded forest canopy and suspending 4 x 7-foot sheets of paper to directly record the water height as it ascended and receded. Against the backdrop of severe drought/flood cycles and rapid residential expansion, Doherty created otherworldly imagery when the surface of the lake rose twenty feet and hovered at the level of the forest canopy, and in the ensuing months as the submerged terrain revealed itself from the watery depths.

Doherty received a BA cum laude in Spanish and French language and literature at Rice University in 1980 and an MFA in photography in 1988 from Yale University. She is a 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and is also a recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the United States Department of the Interior, and the Indiana Arts Commission. She is currently a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including the most recent solo shows; Lodz FotoFestiwal: Human Nature, Lodz, Poland (2018); Mediated Garden, San Antonio College, San Antonio, TX, (2018); Archiving Eden, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX (2017-2018)). Other prestigious group exhibitions have been held in venues such as; Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL; Whatcom Museum, Bellington, WA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA; FotoFest Biennial, Houston, TX; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville TN; The Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool; Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, Wales; The Exchange, Penzance, England; Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, England; University of Texas at San Antonio Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX; Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen, Netherlands; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo de Rodriguez, Santa Fe, Argentina; and Fundacion Ramseyer Dayer, Esperanza, Argentina. 

Her work is in many permanent collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Milwaukee Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Yale University Library, Brandts Museum of Art and Visual Culture in Denmark, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Goldman-Sachs, City of Denton, Federal Reserve Bank, Capital One, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University, and Centro de Fotografía in Spain. 

Much has been written about Doherty's work in publications worldwide. In 2017 Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam published Dornith Doherty: Archiving Eden about her eight-year exploration of the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change and the extinction of natural species. The 160-page book included an insightful essay by Elizabeth Avedon. 

Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 Levee Street; Suite #100 in the Dallas Design District. Gallery hours are 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday - Saturday. For more information please call us at 214-369-0169, or visit www.hollyjohnsongallery.com, or email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com.