News

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Presents Dornith Doherty: Illuminations - Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research with a panel discussion on February 17th at 7pm and a reception from 7 - 9 pm.

Dornith Doherty: Illuminations - Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research is a tripartite environmental art exhibition emerging from a research-based creative collaboration with Dr. Alejandra Vasco, Research Botanist, Ana Niño, Librarian, and Tiana Rehman, Herbarium Director at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). As an artist affiliated with BRIT since July 2021, Doherty investigated the crucial physical artifacts of botanical biodiversity research – from a collection of diaphanized plants made in the 1950s to a contemporary Andean biodiversity project focused on diverse ferns threatened by climate change and ecosystem disruption. 

This exhibition at BRIT presents new artworks that engage with the past, chronicle the present, and project our possible ecological futures. With those, Doherty illuminates the complex web of global scientific histories and the promising results of current day environmental research. Doherty’s work is concerned with our stewardship of the natural environment, and this new project explores the importance of present-day efforts racing against time to preserve today’s plant diversity for future generations.

Dornith Doherty is a 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and an American artist working primarily with photography, video, and scientific imaging. She received a BA from Rice University and an MFA in Photography from Yale University. Doherty lives in Dallas and is Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas, where she has been a faculty member since 1996. In addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship, she has received grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Japan Foundation, and the United States Department of the Interior. Artist-in-residencies: Museum of Contemporary Art-Toronto, Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, and Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Recent exhibitions: Unsettled Natures: Artists Reflect on the Age of Human, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC; Archiving Eden: Exchange, Museum of Contemporary Art-Toronto; Seedscapes: Future-Proofing Nature, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, England; Dornith Doherty: Archiving Eden, National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, and Companion Species, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR. Her work has been shown and collected extensively in the United States and abroad. 

Alejandra Vasco is a Research Botanist at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. She received a PhD in Biology from The City University of New York and The New York Botanical Garden, and a BS in Biology from the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. Alejandra’s research focus is on the diversity and evolution of ferns. Together with colleagues Weston Testo and Michael Sundue, Alejandra leads Ferns of Colombia, a project funded by the National Science Foundation to document and explore the high diversity of ferns in Colombia.

Tiana Rehman is the Herbarium Director at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. She received a MS in Environmental Science from Texas Christian University, and a BS in Environmental Science and BA in Cultural Anthropology from Southern Methodist University. As the Herbarium Director, Tiana oversees nearly 1.5 million herbarium specimens, microscope slides, microphotographs, and liquid-preserved collections. 

Ana Niño is the Librarian at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. She received a BS from Cornell University in Science & Technology studies, and a MS in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. As the BRIT librarian, she facilitates research and manages library, archival, and art acquisitions.

With support from: Ferns of Colombia, a grant funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology 2045319, and the University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Design Scholarly and Creative Activity Award.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Botanical Research Institute of Texas / BRIT Building

The Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall

1700 University Drive

Fort Worth, Texas 76107

Monday - Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

For exhibit info: Dornith Doherty - dornith.doherty@unt.edu or Alejandra Vasco - avasco@brit.org 

https://fwbg.org/events/illuminations-fern/