Kennesaw State presents exhibition by African-American artist Juan Logan

Kennesaw, GA (Mar. 16) - Forty years ago, Juan Logan was a student at Clark College, now Clark Atlanta University, when he sold his first painting for $25. His latest work is the $2.5 million North Carolina Freedom Monument Project in Raleigh.

   The full span of his work over the course of those forty years is the subject of the exhibition, “Juan Logan: Caught Off Guard,” which is on display in Kennesaw State University’s Sturgis Library Gallery through April 18. The paintings and linocuts in this 40-year retrospective explore the impact of racism, social change and injustice with symbolically charged images and the healing power of ritual objects rooted in the rural black South of his past. His art reflects the changes he and society have experienced in America since the 1960s, and challenges viewers to move beyond our differences to an understanding of our shared humanity.

   In his artwork, Juan Logan says he is “asking a lot of questions.” He told students at Kennesaw State, where he has been serving as the Invitational Artist-in-Residence, “I’m seeking my own answers not providing answers for you. But, I figure if you can ask more questions, you can deepen your own investigation.”

   Logan’s residency at Kennesaw State over the last year has brought him to campus on several occasions to work with and mentor the university’s art majors.

   “He has been an inspiration for students,” says Joseph Meeks, dean of the KSU College of the Arts. “He is a remarkable, insightful artist who can connect with students visually through his work and through his informative, but relaxed lecture style.”

   Meeks, who was one of Logan’s professors all those years ago at Clark, purchased the second piece Logan ever sold. Meeks was sitting under it one Sunday two years ago reading the paper when he came across a review of an exhibition in Atlanta that included Logan’s work. “I literally had just been wondering where his career had taken him when suddenly his name was in front of me.” The two men re-connected and Meeks invited Logan to serve as an artist-in-residence and exhibit at Kennesaw State.

   Logan currently serves as director of graduate studies in studio art at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but continues to create and exhibit his own work. In fact, in just the last five years, he’s been featured in more than 16 group and solo shows in 10 states, the District of Columbia and China. His work is also part of four dozen public collections throughout Africa and the United States.

   The exhibition at Kennesaw State includes 38 paintings and prints, including the piece Meeks purchased from a promising young student in 1966. 

The Sturgis Gallery is open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit www.kennesaw.edu/arts or call 770-499-3223.