By CALLEY LAMAR calley@poncacitynews.com

The City Arts Organization, formerly known as the Ponca City Art Association (PCAA), hosted a retrospective exhibition celebrating the life of artist Gene V. Dougherty. Dougherty was an accomplished artist in watercolor and oils, characterizing the American West with an open, clear, and refreshing realism. Dougherty taught art at Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) in Tonkawa for 31 years and is known for his paintings of local buildings, wildlife, hunting scenes, landscapes, and Native American dancers.

Dougherty passed away in June of this year. 

An opening reception was held on Sunday, Aug. 7 from 2 pm to 4 pm in the newly opened John McNeese Gallery located on the first floor in the City Central building at 400 E. Central Avenue in Ponca City. The exhibit will be open starting on Thursday, Aug. 11 and will be open on during regular gallery hours on Thursdays and Fridays from 10 am to 6 pm, and Saturdays 10 am to 2 pm until Saturday, Aug. 20.

This gallery as set up as part of an initiative by City Arts board member, Betty Scott, to exhibit the work of artists associated with Ponca City. Davis was able to curate the show by reaching out to many private artists that owned pieces by Dougherty and were willing to display them as part of the exhibit.

“When Betty joined the board, something she was really passionate about was showing off artists that have a history with Ponca City. And of course Mr. Dougherty does,” said Terron Liles, Executive Director of City Arts.

“We started working with [Dougherty] and he was very excited to celebrate his birthday with us. And unfortunately he just didn’t make it,” said Betty Scott. “The show is know a little bit of a retrospect and a memoriam.”

The exhibit was opened on what would have been Dougherty’s 93rd birthday.

50 works of art in multiple 2D mediums, all by the late Gene V. Dougherty, will be featured at the exhibition. His work gathered numerous awards at art festivals and galleries. Several of his paintings of military subjects have hung in the Senate Office Building and one is in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Another, pertaining to the Air Force campaign in the South Pacific, hangs in the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He created a large mural for the Ponca City Post Office. 

Dougherty received the Governor’s Award from the Oklahoma Arts Council in 2015, and the 2020 Lifetime Service Award in Tonkawa.

For more information on this exhibition or the City Arts organization, visit www.pcarts.org, email director@pcarts.org or call (580) 765-9746.