VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present Dornith Doherty at Mid-Career, featuring selections from the Altered Terrain and Archiving Eden series by artist Dornith Doherty, in conjunction with Houston’s FotoFest 2010 Biennial. The exhibition will open during the March 6th ArtWalk and remain on view through April 11, 2010. Curator Clint Willour will lead a gallery talk with the artist at 6:30 pm. Following the presentation in Galveston, the exhibition will be on view at the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University in Waco. A full-color exhibition catalogue featuring work from both series will be available for purchase.

Curated by Clint Willour, the carefully distilled selection of work includes photographs from Doherty’s decade-long exploration of culturally reconfigured landscapes titled Altered Terrain. Using specimens and found objects collected on site, Doherty arranges a carefully constructed still-life tableau, projects other imagery onto it, and then photographs the assemblage with a view camera. Her multi-layered compositions speak volumes about the natural world and humanity’s stewardship of it, while also commenting on critical issues affecting the contemporary landscape.

“I am fascinated by systems in which knowledge of past times and distant places is transmitted by capturing, transporting, and displaying diverse visual evidence, be it natural history specimens or expeditionary photographs,” writes the artist. The resulting landscape photographs in this series refer “to an environment being transfigured by a host of critical issues.”

For the series Archiving Eden, Doherty explores the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change, the extinction of natural species and decreased agricultural diversity. Working at both the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado, and at the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens—Kew, Wakehurst Place in Sussex, England, Doherty used on-site x-ray equipment to photograph seeds and cloned plants from the facilities’ extensive storage vaults. The archival pigment prints include seed and plant x-rays arranged into mandala shapes, as well as organic designs that evoke tension between storage and dispersal, and reproduction and extinction. The digital chromogenic lenticular prints include collaged x-ray images of seeds in blue, green, and brown backgrounds that shift in color and shape (hologram-like) as the viewer moves past. This work questions the complex philosophical, anthropological, and ecological issues surrounding the role of science, technology, and human agency in the context of seed banks.

Dornith Doherty was born in Houston and received a B.A. from Rice University and an MFA in Photography from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She currently teaches photography at the University of North Texas in Denton. She has received 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. Doherty was awarded the inaugural fellowship from the University of North Texas’ Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, recognizing artistic contributions by outstanding faculty members. The fellowship and grant will support the artist’s continued work on the Archiving Eden series during spring 2010.

Galveston Arts Center is currently operating “in exile” from our second temporary downtown gallery space—the site of the former Maceo’s Spice and Import Company located on the corner of Market and 25th Streets. The administrative offices are also at this location. The gallery and selections from GAC’s museum shop, ArtWorks, are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. A flyer listing all ArtWalk participants with times and locations can be downloaded at www.galvestonartscenter.org.

SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP
Funding for GAC’s exhibition programs is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston Endowment, Inc., Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Galveston through the Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund, and the generous support of the community, volunteers and an active membership. GAC’s Art for All Education Program is supported in part by the Wilton and Effie Mae Hebert Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Alice Taylor Gray Foundation, Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, and the Jr. League of Galveston County’s Community Assistance Fund.

LOCATION AND HOURS
Galveston Arts Center is located on the corner of Strand and 22nd (Kempner) Street in historic downtown Galveston. The building is currently closed until further notice for repairs to damage from Hurricane Ike. We anticipate re-opening in 2010. For more information, call 409.763.2403 or visit www.galvestonartscenter.org.  

Galveston Arts Center in Exile 2 is located at 2501 Market Street, Galveston, TX, 77550. The mailing address for GAC remains the same: 2127 Strand, Galveston, TX 77550.

Pictured above:  Dornith Doherty, Corn Diversity, (from the series Archiving Eden),2010, Digital Chromogenic Lenticular Photograph, 44 x 78 inches, Courtesy the artist, Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, and McMurtrey Gallery, Houston.

Pictured below:  Dornith Doherty, Cumulus, (from the series Altered Terrain), 2007, Digital Chromogenic Color Photograph (Lamba, 44 x 64 inches, Courtesy the artist, Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, and McMurtrey Gallery, Houston.