Zachari Logan Becomes One With Nature in His Latest Exhibit

Canadian artist Zachari Logan will soon host his first art exhibit in Texas. The bold collection of sensual art installation pieces, ceramics, and drawings is entitled Come Eat My Pleasant Fruits, and will be open to the public starting at noon on October 30 through December 12 at Bill Arning Exhibitions.

 Through large-scale drawings, ceramics, and installation pieces, Logan hopes to invoke a visual language that explores the intersections of masculinity, identity, memory, and place.

“I love the idea of the body being a garden, which is central to a lot of themes in my work,” Logan explains. “I have the belief that there is no separation between land and our body. Land is body. We are simply one aspect of the landscape.” 

The queer artist’s exhibit will consist of both old and new works, from 2016 to the present. 

“Since it’s my first exhibition in Texas, I wanted to try and showcase a wide range of my works in different media,” he says. “So we have large-scale drawings, as well as examples of my ceramic work and my smaller drawings. It is fairly new work, but it feels like a bit of an overview of who I am.” 

Logan’s newer pieces are based on “aura migraines,” which are the visual disturbances people see when experiencing a headache. “I’m doing a drawing right now based on my own experiences of my migraine auras. I’ve been spending the past four or five years on a series of large-scale drawings that are based on these ocular disruptions.”

While painful, Logan uses his migraines as an inspiration for his works. “I have this strange relationship with my migraines, because I don’t like the pain associated with them. But they are visually fascinating. I like referencing the movement of them and the shape of them, alongside references to other artists and writers who deal with the same phenomenon, such as Hildegarrd Von Bingen, a 11th Century German Mystic and abbess who wrote and depicted her migraines to starling effect.” 

Logan also uses his entire body as inspiration for his art. “My body is always the catalyst for my work,” he says. “My earlier works were life-size depictions of my own body. I was using a lot of historical art tropes and turning a queer eye to what [has always been] a very heterosexist language—the language of art history. I quite frankly did not see queer bodies reflected in art history, so I started using my own body.”

One of the more daring works in his exhibit is a combination of a plant and a male appendage, with flowers growing out of the sexual organ. 

“I wouldn’t consider it that explicit,” he notes. “It’s such a blend of earth and body that you might be fooled by what is actually happening and what is being depicted.”

Logan hopes those who stop by the exhibit will feel emotionally moved by the pieces. “I think these images from nature and the natural world help to push the idea of diversity, and how it relates to us as creatures of the planet. We are a part of nature. Just like there are many types of plants with various roles, there are many different types of people on this planet. Everyone has a purpose.”

Logan ultimately hopes his work will inspire people to find their own means of creative expression. 

“I really want people to think about certain things and creatively express themselves,” he emphasizes. “I know that when I’m drawing, I’m thinking. Art is about philosophizing the world and your place in it.” 

For more info, visit zachariloganart.com.

What: Come Eat My Pleasant Fruits
When: Through December 12
Where: Bill Arning Exhibitions, 604 W. Alabama Street
Info: www.billarning.com

This article appears in the November 2021 edition of OutSmart magazine.

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