Zachari Logan – To Thine Own Self
Asherah (det. from Kitty Triptych), 2009 graphite on paper 42 x 95 Photo to Zach
To be amazed by being is an attribute of youth. Ahead, there stretches a seemingly endless road where the future sizzles with potential. It is no wonder that ‘emerging’ is desirable for the beginning of a journey is packed with freshness, positive energy and vested with undaunted beliefs. It is not bravery or even risk that serves as the motivation that propels the clean stream of nascent consciousness forward but an unhindered willingness to engage in the adventure of life before jaded or calloused concerns colour the clear vista ahead.
Zachari Logan’s work appears to come from this naturally seated overview, the universal authenticity of being, and then it is honed down to the particular attributes of Logan-ness that are important for him to pass on to others. From the particular orientation of maleness (he is a gay advocate) to the very individual mind and body of the artist, Logan passes on a vision of unsullied wonder. The grand yet humbling precept embedded in his large scale works is To thine own self be true, which Shakespeare wrote as council from the wise (albeit somewhat addled) elder Polonius to his son Laertes. The next line is “And it shall follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
And thus, Zachari Logan presents himself –his visage, his body. When nude or partially clothed the absence is a poignant statement of both the vulnerable parts of masculinity and Logan’s personal sexual orientation. From grand positions with mythic or art historical implications, Logan changes his roles as if it is no trouble at all to try ‘this’ or ‘that’ on. He goes to great lengths and presents a wide variety of Logans without either pontificating or presuming didactic points of view. It seems as consequential to accept Zachari Logan as a martyr as it is to accept him as a wee birdie. His work assumes a theatrical stance without hooking onto a definite narrative. The only cut-and-dried, indisputable, no-doubts fact that runs through Logan’s visual vocabulary is that Logan is present. He can be a twig or a lounging hipster in shades. He can be drinking coffee, climbing on the back of Gulliver – he can be Gulliver – or falling from the sky in multiple incarnations of himself because he is linked, with the blitheness of the young, to his authenticity.
Logan sculpts his body with a regular gym routine and cares for it as if it is a godly temple. Pompous? No. If anything, Logan, as well, is amazed by his own being, emerging to himself, appearing before himself to talk with his own being. The conversation that he draws and paints is imbued with humility.
Logan is marching forth from his studio in Saskatoon in a ‘high-vis’ vest, reflecting the headlights lights that now illuminate his progress. His solo exhibition Trauma and Other Stories shows at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in Chelsea, New York; while Disappearances will be presented at Jean Roch Dard in Paris. Then he is off to NAFF Athens, Greece, where he will be showing Vignette, An Androphilia Art Project. Because he has been willing to open himself like a diary that has no awareness of – or need for – secrets buoyed by his gift of talented draughtsmanship, Zachari Logan has created a body of work loaded with impeccably convincing renditions of being.
DISAPPEARANCES (solo)
Galerie Jean Roch Dard, Paris, France
Nov/Dec 2011
TRAUMA & OTHER STORIES (solo)
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
New York, NY. Nov/Dec 2011
NAFF ATHINA, ARTIST PROJECT (solo)
Athens Greece. Nov. 2011
COMING SOON:
PORTRAITS WITHOUT PANTS: THE ART OF ZACHARI LOGAN
Sternthal Publications
http://www.sternthalbooks.com/?p=zachari_logan
www.zacharilogan.com
