CURATORIAL BACK STORY
From 1975 into 1983 Bill Doherty and Barbara Lafferty-Ferrari comprised the curatorial/performance team ēpoch. ēpoch presented evenings of performance and presentations of contemporary art in nightclubs, alternative spaces as well as galleries.
Among the artists presented were; Ray Johnson, Alice Neel, Keith Haring, Richard Hambleton, and Geoff Hendricks.
The Mob collective, founded by Bill Doherty, Tom Mc Glynn, and Rafael Sanchez existed from 1989 -1991. Mob curated shows with the mission of making art and ideas accessible to populations that rarely encounter art by bringing exhibitions to various neighborhoods outside of the usual realm where art is part of people's experience.
The multi-disciplinary approach was born from the collective's individual participation in the merging of genres in the downtown New York City art scene. Mob organized five shows during this time. “Three Boys From Italy“ was shown at the Three Boys from Italy Pizzeria in lower Jersey City, NJ. “The Apartment Show” was set in a transitional living space in the Journal Square section of Jersey City, NJ. "The My-T-Fine Show" was installed in the abandoned My-T-Fine shipping office in a warehouse in Hoboken, NJ. “Barbara Tedeschi at Roger Johansen, D.D.S”, was exhibited at a dental office also in Hoboken. The last show that Mob curated was, “Mob At Speedway” had been shown at The Speedway Gallery in Boston, MA in 1991.
In 1998 Bill Doherty and Suzan Batu formed the curatorial team, “KOOH”. The first show produced by “KOOH” was titled “Fashioned”. It was the inaugural show for White Box Gallery in the Chelsea art district of New York City. It then traveled to White Box, Philadelphia, PA. Mob's aesthetic influenced KOOH by presenting exhibitions in places where art is not part of the 'scheme'. Social aspects were also a concern of theirs. In 2007 the “KOOH” team embarked on an ambitious series of shows entitled “Kuf/Mold “. (Kuf is the Turkish word for mold). The name Kuf/Mold was chosen because of their tendency towards the organic/mass coverage of whole neighborhoods and social strata in the given cities where “Kuf/Mold was presented. In 2007 the first of “Kuf/Mold” was installed in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. It was adopted by the Istanbul Biennial of that year. Next, Gent, Belgium was the host city in 2008 followed by Rotterdam the Netherlands in 2009. In both these cities, Kuf/Mold involved the populace and the shops and businesses of Turkish immigrants as well as the new businesses that were responsible for gentrifying those neighborhoods. In every incarnation, Kuf/Mold presented an array of international artists. An important subtext that emerged in this series of shows was that these communities represented a blend of old and new Europe.
In 2011 Bill Doherty and Tom Mc Glynn joined forces with Anne Klimt, Bachrun, and Mahalia LoMele of "The Hatchery Art Spaces" to realize the exhibition, "East of Fresno". The Hatchery is located in a remote location in the Sierra Foot Hills region of Central California. Located on the property that is the former site of Synanon. Synanon started out as a government-funded drug rehabilitation organization in Oakland, California in the mid-1970s. After relocating to the Sierra Foothills in the 1990’s Synanon evolved into a cult. Later the site had been repurposed as a self-sufficient Muslim community that disbanded in September of 2001 by the name of The City of Allah. The show was framed to create a temporary intentional community of artists responding to the location’s specific layered social histories of these failed utopian societies. “East of Fresno” culminated in a two-day event around painting, site-specific sculpture, and installations including a temporary radio station that broadcast within the compound's borders.
Following “East of Fresno” Doherty and Mc Glynn founded “Beautiful Fields” in 2013. The first show for this venture was, “Phenomena”. A works on paper show at the “Phatory” gallery in New York’s East Village curated by Bill Doherty. Later with a grant from Apex Art, “Memphis Social” was curated by both members of the team and was facilitated by Mc Glynn for downtown Memphis.
In 2015 "Hatchery Art Spaces" was chosen by the Urban Art and Media Organization (U.A.M.O.) in Munich, Germany to be part of their ongoing City Tour Project for 2015-2016. This time curated by Anne Klint, Bachrun LoMele, and Bill Doherty. The Hatchery in Badger, California with a population of 400 was the only “city” from the United States chosen. The theme was “Fortress”. The Hatchery: Fortress exhibition was presented at The Hatchery Art Spaces, November 6-8th, 2015. In April and May 2016, the Hatchery along with the other participating cities that were part of the “Fortress” project was represented in Munich as part of U.A.M.O. City Tour Festival.