the body draws itself
ZACHARI LOGAN
October 10 - November 30, 2024
Zachari Logan. Nel Mezzo Del Cammin Di Nostra Vita, (The Gate), (Detail) pastel on black paper, 59x394 inches, 2018.
In the act of drawing there is little space between material, creation and the physical self- it is a process where thought comes to manifest tangibly as surface and form.
The Body Draws Itself is an exploration of Zachari Logan’s approach to drawing; of the ebb and flow of subjectivity and objectivity engaged in drawing the self, especially when the body is visually absent or only a minimal referent. Spatially, the work included ranges from the minute to the monumental, providing the viewer with continual folds in meaning, conveying confluences visually through the folding of paper, fabric, clay, body hair, pattern and texture.
Integrating empirical observations of the natural world alongside references from art history, Logan extends the subjective portrait to the dramatic. Engaging with notions of identity, memory, and mortality using weeds, wildflowers, and ditches as avatars of queer male embodiment Logan visualizes a “re-wilding” of the queer body. His use of particular plant forms that thrive in the liminal area of the ditch, illuminate these often discarded and maligned plants as stand-ins for his own body and the bodies of those othered.
Public Programming
PUBLIC RECEPTION
Thursday October 10, 2024
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Refreshments and Cash Bar available
Workshop
PLANT LIFE : contemporary practices in visual arts, the sciences, and beyond
Saturday, October 12, 2024 - 1:00 to 4:00 PM
Free Admission
Visit the Grenfell Campus Herbarium and connect with artists Zachari Logan and Chantal Pennell with Herbarium curator Dr. Dmitry Sveshnikov in relation to how we can learn from and with plants in our creative and scientific learning
Register and find out more on Eventbrite!
Zachari Logan, Leshy No. 3 from Natural Drag Series, Pastel on black paper 42 x 49 inches, 2020.
Zachari Logan. Secret Garden Series (No. 3) ink on fabric, 2023.
Images courtesy of the artist and Paul Petro Contemporary Art
Canadian artist Zachari Logan (b. Saskatoon, 1980) works mainly with large-scale drawing, ceramics and installation practices, evolving a visual language that explores the intersections between identity, memory and place. Employing a strategy of visual quotation, mined from place and experience, Logan re-wilds his body as a queer embodiment of nature. This narrative shift engages ideas of beauty, mortality, empirical explorations of landscape, and overlapping art-historic motifs that all underline a fundamental interconnection of the human as nature.
Logan has exhibited widely throughout North America, Europe and Asia and is found in private and public collections worldwide, including; National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Remai Modern, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (NMOCA), Gardiner Museum, 21cMuseums Hotel Collection and Thetis Foundation, among others. As an extension of his studio practice, Logan has attended many residencies; including Vienna’s Museums Quartier MQ21 Program, the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, Wave Hill Botanical Gardens Winter Workspace Program in the Bronx and Little Bird Artist Residency in rural Bulgaria. Logan was artist in residence at the Tom Thomson Shack at the McMichael Gallery in 2017, a commission of the Ontario Government to commemorate the centenary of Tom Thomson’s death. In 2021 Logan was the Koerner Artist in Residence at Queens University. Logan has worked collaboratively with several celebrated artists, including Ross Bleckner and Sophie Calle and his work has been featured in many publications worldwide, including BBC Culture, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Border Crossings, Huffington Post, Canadian Art and Hyperallergic to name a few. Logan’s recent projects include the 2-person exhibition, Shadow Of The Sun: Ross Bleckner & Zachari Logan, (2021) at Wave Hill Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, Wildflower (2021) a solo exhibition at the Canadian High Commission in London UK, Ghost Meadows, (2021-22) at Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Canada and Remembrance, (2022-23) at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts and The Flourishing Edge a commission for Toronto’s Gardiner Museum.