John Doherty – Strand Street, Youghal, Co. Cork from the show at Taylor.
Legacy is the title of John Doherty’s exhibition at Taylor Galleries in Dublin until May 21. Long known for his finely detailed studies of the minutiae of life in an Ireland that is in the process of slowly fading from view much of Doherty’s work focuses on the effect that the passage of time has on the surface of things. He returns frequently to familiar leitmotifs – old shops in small country towns, petrol pumps, public houses that have long since called last orders and marine paraphernalia that resemble marooned relics of another time and place. In Legacy he presents a series of paintings that together comprise a close study of our built environment and encompass a vast array of architectural quirks and foibles, as well as intriguing aesthetic decisions made by owner/occupiers, that make them rich in vernacular variety and visual interest.