Dornith Doherty: Altered Terrain

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to present Dornith Doherty: Altered Terrain, an exhibition of new Chromogenic color photographs. This new body of work continues to investigate the contemporary landscape while also commenting on critical issues affecting it.  A new forty page catalogue surveying the last ten years of her work will be available. An opening reception honoring the artist will be held Saturday, December 1st from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The exhibition continues through Dec. 29.

Dornith Doherty’s fascination with the environment and the way humankind manages wild areas has driven her work through travels to Costa Rica, California’s Joshua Tree National Park, Kyoto, Japan, Inveraray, Scotland, and Gullfoss, Iceland. Her enigmatic tableaux of multi-layered imagery speak volumes about the natural world and humanity’s stewardship of it. Using collected specimens and found objects from the surrounding terrain she arranges a still-life, illuminates it with other imagery, and then the entire assemblage is re-photographed with a view camera. The artist’s exploration of areas closer to home such as Caddo Lake, the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and the Rio Grande continue in her work today.

Dornith Doherty was born in Houston, Texas.  She received a BA cum laude in Spanish and French language and literature at Rice University in 1980, and an MFA in Photography from Yale University in 1988.  She is currently Professor of Photography at the University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Design in Denton. She currently resides in the Dallas area. 

Doherty has been the recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the United States Department of the Interior, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the Society for Contemporary Photography. Her photographs have been featured in over 65 national and international exhibitions, and are included in the permanent collections of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont; Goldman-Sachs Collection, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Museet for Fotokunst in Odense, Denmark; Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Sheldon Swope Art Museum; Sprint Corporation Collection; W Hotel and Residences in Dallas, Texas; and the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut.

Her work has been written about extensively and has appeared in articles in publications such as the Dallas Observer, Modern Luxury Dallas, Artlies, Austin American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, Fort Worth Weekly, Houston Press, The Dallas Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.