Fralin Museum of Art announces Patrick Dougherty exhibition

The Fralin Museum of Art announces Patrick Dougherty an exhibition on view October 19 – December 22, 2014.

In October, Patrick Dougherty, world-renowned for his larger-than-life, site-specific sculptures made of locally harvested twigs and saplings, will create a unique work of art in front of the Ruth Caplin Theatre and the Arts Commons, the latest additions to the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds. Constructed with the help of U.Va. and community volunteers, the sculpture will both respond to and reflect its physical environment and the process of its own creation. An exhibition at The Fralin featuring models and photographs of Dougherty’s earlier projects, as well as preparatory drawings for the installation at U.Va., will introduce Museum visitors to the artist’s means and methods.

Dougherty, a native of North Carolina, has received numerous awards for his art, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He began constructing sculptures in the early 1980s. Using local materials, the artist weaves a work into being based on each location. Acknowledging the biodegradable and ephemeral nature of the materials, Dougherty’s sculptures inhabit a space for only a limited time.

The sculpture will celebrate the culmination of the first phase of Arts Grounds construction and initiate the site as a home for works of art. The Fralin and a confluence of departments, including the McIntire Department of Art and the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, are proud to bring Dougherty to Grounds and, with the dynamic cooperation of the University community, present a project that promises to set a precedent for this new space. www.virginia.edu/artmuseum