Willie Doherty Born 1959 in Derry, Northern Ireland

Lives and work in Donegal, Ireland

Exploring the complex relationship between landscape, memory, and political history, Doherty responds to mysterious isolated settings that conceal a troubled past. Over a career spanning four decades, Doherty has investigated the way contested territories hold and conceal histories of trauma and violence, particularly focusing on his native Northern Ireland during and after the “Troubles”, where a violent, decades-long conflict marked by tensions, protests, and clashes between communities. His imagery—often presented in diptychs or slow-unfolding video—reveals the tension between opposing perspectives, challenging the viewer’s sense of historical objectivity and truth.  In his videos, he often combins material evidence with haunting fictional monologues that speak of shame, deception, brutality and its aftermath, as if leaking the stories contained within the landscape. 

Doherty’s practice extends beyond Northern Ireland to global sites of conflict and division — including the US-Mexico border, as well as Germany, Switzerland, and Spain — where he explores the construction of “us and them” mentalities and reflects on the loneliness they produce.

He has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Solstice Arts Centre (Navan, 2024), Palazzina dei Giardini, Modena, 2021 which travelled to Ulster Museum, Belfast, 2021,  Art Sonje Center (Seoul, 2017). In 2016 the Museum Villa Merkel in Esslingen, Germany devoted a comprehensive solo exhibition to the artist. Other solo exhibitions took place in 2015 at the Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal and in 2014 at the De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art in Tilburg, The Netherlands. In 2012 he participated at the Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany and in 2007 he was part of the Northern Irish pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Doherty’s works can be found in the collections of the most important museums.