Patrick Dougher is an artist, musician, and

art therapist Art therapy is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art therapy, as a creative arts therapy profession, originated in the fields of art and psychotherapy and may vary in definition. Art ...

who was born at King's County Hospital and raised in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York, growing up in the

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southe ...

neighborhood until the age of 10. He was featured in the

Humans of New York ''Humans of New York'' (''HONY'') is a photoblog and book of street portraits and interviews collected on the streets of New York City. Started in November 2010 by photographer Brandon Stanton, ''Humans of New York'' has developed a large foll ...

series.

Personal life

Dougher was born in New York City to an Irish father and an African American mother. His partner is Sélène Saint-Aimé, a French-Caribbean bassist.

Music career

Dougher began playing the drums at the age of 17 and has performed and recorded as a drummer. He played with the ska band Boilers and Toasters, performed with

Sade Sade may refer to: People * Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine; namesake of the word ''sadism'' * Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band * ...

, recorded with

Easy Star All-Stars Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective founded in 1997 by Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Remy Gerstein of New York City-based Easy Star Records. The band is known for its reinterpretations of classic albums in reggae st ...

, and performed at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

, the Roxy,

Webster Hall Webster Hall is a nightclub and concert venue located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, near Astor Place, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. It is one of New York City's most historically significant ...

, and other venues.

Education and art therapy career

As an art therapist, Dougher worked with children living with HIV and AIDS at King's County Hospital in the early 2000s. As an Educator, he has worked as a youth advisor with the New York City Department of Education and as a teaching artist at Project Reach and Studio in a School; he serves as the Interim Director of Education for BRIC Arts Media.

Acting career

Dougher played a lead role in "Brooklyn 63," a 2014 production by Ping Chong 651 Arts. He has also performed as a poet, using his poetry to criticize the gentrification of Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Art career

Dougher's art career began at the age of sixteen in New York City, during the late 1970s, as a studio assistant in SoHo. He is well known for his "Art Cans," which make use of flattened aluminum cans and draw on traditional African art as well as

Xerox art Xerox art (sometimes, more generically, called copy art, electrostatic art, scanography or xerography) is an art form that began in the 1960s. Prints are created by putting objects on the glass, or platen, of a photocopier and by pressing "start" t ...

. As a Program Director for Groundswell, a community mural arts organization in Brooklyn, NY, beginning in 2011, Dougher directed the creation of over 300 murals across New York City, depicting community-focused issues such as gun violence, women, immigration, race, and diversity. He has spoken about the role of art and especially of mural arts as a tool for creating visual legacies within communities that are changing rapidly due to gentrification. As a mural artist, Dougher designed "Spread Love," the first in a series of murals organized by

MoCADA Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is Brooklyn's first and only contemporary art museum dedicated to the art and culture of Africa and its diaspora. Since 2023, the museum has operated within an expanded campus which includes ...

in celebration of its 20th anniversary. "Spread Love" was unveiled in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in early 2019. Much of Dougher's work focuses on representing the concept of God in and around people, and seeks to connect African American culture to its sacred African heritage. He is well known for his God Body series of artworks, which depict sacred objects using found and recycled materials. Dougher also worked as assistant curator at The Museum of African Art.

Selected exhibitions

* "God Body," MoCADA, November 8 - December 22, 2019 * "Art and Lit," (group exhibition), South Africa, June 2019 * "DWU History Exhibition," ARTs East New York Gallery, January 2019

References

External links

Artist Website
*
YouTube clip of Dougher performing drums with Sade, June 1993
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dougher, Patrick Living people Artists from New York City American male painters African-American painters American people of Irish descent Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people