Jack Doherty
Ceramics Screen Print
Irish Potter Jack Doherty lives and works in Mousehole, Cornwall. He makes porcelain vessel forms that are thrown on the potter's wheel and then carved and shaped when the clay is soft to reflect the fluidity of the material. His elemental colour and surface textures are created by the fusion of fire and soda, leaving behind a subtle palette of smokey grey, lemon, russet and turquoise.
Jack Doherty was born in County Derry and studied Ceramics at the Ulster College of Art and Design, Belfast. He graduated in 1971 and worked at Kilkenny Design Workshops before establishing his studio first in Co Armagh and then in Herefordshire, UK. From 2008 – 2013 Doherty was appointed as the first Lead Potter and Creative Director at the refurbished Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, where he established the new production studio. He now works independently from his studio in Mousehole. Jack is involved with contemporary ceramics on many levels; as a lecturer, curator and conference organiser but primarily as an artist and maker. He was Chairman of the Craft Potters Association for 12 years, a founder member of Ceramic Art London and has been guest editor of Ceramic Review magazine. His work is exhibited internationally and is represented in many public collections including the Irish Contemporary Ceramics Collection at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, the National Museum of Ireland and the Ulster Museum. In 2010 he represented Ireland at the European Ceramics Context exhibition in Bornholm Denmark. In 2016 Jack received the international Janet Mansfield Memorial Award for ‘exceptional work with soda glaze’. He was invited to lead the first International Soda-firing Festival in Fuping, China 2019. Jack Doherty was selected as a finalist for the LOEWE craft prize 2020.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2019:
The Poetics of Fire, SKN Gallery, Xi’an China;
Surface Matters, Portfolio Critical Selection Exhibition, Dublin Castle and NDCG Kilkenny;
Transition / Resonate Space | Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall;
Beaux Arts, Bath, Solo Exhibition;
2018:
Grounding New Craftsman St Ives UK;
Grounding: Vessels from the Land the Sea and the Sky NTUE Taipei ;
Vessels from Grass Mountain, URS27M Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan;
2017:
Living Space, Mashiko Ceramics Museum Japan ;
Living Space Contemporary Ceramics Centre London | Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath;
New work Biotop Gallery Toyko & Osaka, Japan ;
2016:
Waypoint, Market Place Gallery, Armagh, NI Craft Month ;
Waypoint, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh ;
Wu, Solo exhibition, Dao Artspace, Xian, China ;
Living Space, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo;
2015:
Waypoint New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives | Beaux Arts, Bath;
The Studio and the Sea, Gallery St Ives, Tokyo, Japan;
2014:
Harbouring Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall | Brook St Gallery, Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire;
2012:
A Place in the World, Garden House, Cornwall, UK | New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall;
2011:
Jack Doherty, New Work, Gallery St Ives, Toyko, Japan ;
2010:
Pure Simplicity, National University, Taipei, Taiwan;
Jack Doherty; New Work Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, N Ireland;
2009: Simple Beauty, Solo Exhibition, National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland ;
COLLECTIONS:
Mashiko Ceramic Museum, Japan;
Irish Contemporary Ceramic Collection, Hunt Museum, Limerick ;
National Museum of Ireland, Dublin Ulster Museum ;
FPAV museum Fuping China ;
Belfast Potteries Museum, Hanley ;
Liverpool Museum ;
Princeshof Ceramics Museum, Netherlands ;
Castle Museum, Nottingham;
Cheltenham Museum, Gloucestershire;
Ceramics Museum, Faenza, Italy ;
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES:
2019 November Director, International Soda-firing Conference, Fuping, China;
2018 September – October, Artist in Residence, Cloud Forest Studio, Taipei Taiwan ;
2016 Artist in Residence, Mashiko Ceramic Museum, Japan | JMMA Artist in Residence, Fuping, China;
SELECTED LECTURES and DEMONSTRATIONS:
2019 A Life In Clay, Lecture. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ;
The Ambiguity of Function, Lecture. DIG Conference, Heritage Council, Kilkenny Ireland ;
2018 Masterclass, Ceramics Ireland Thomastown Co Kilkenny Ireland ;
2017 Fabrik, Freiburg Germany;
2012 Henry Rothschild Memorial Lecture Shipley Art Gallery Gateshead;
2009 International Ceramics Festival, Invited Artist, Aberwstwyth Wales;
2007 National University Canberra Australia International Ceramics Festival Queensland Australia ;
2005 South African Ceramics Society Cape Town and Pretoria South Africa;
2003 International Ceramics Festival Valetta Malta ;
2000 92ndSt Y Manhattan, New York | Hood College Maryland U.S. Virginia Ceramics Group U.S. ;
PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Honorary Fellow, Craft Potters Association UK ;
Selected Maker, Portfolio Critical Selection, Design and Crafts Council of Ireland ;
Chair of Ceramic Art London 2004 – 2015;
Honorary Member RBSA ;
PUBLICATIONS:
2018 Living Space Limited Edition Book, Editor Sarah Frangleton published by Doherty Porcelain ;
2002 Porcelain by Jack Doherty, published by A&C Black, London .
I live with ceramic vessels. Their forms and volume, edges and textures, spill from the studio into every room in the house. Displayed on ledges, windowsills and mantlepieces, they create an intervention with domestic space and daily life. My way of life and work is inseparable. In these living spaces my pots speak for themselves.
