April 15, 2022

New Exhibition at PEM invites a Meditation on Loss, Grief and Healing 

by Felicia Cheney

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This spring, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) presents Zachari Logan: Remembrance, an exhibition of drawings and sculpture that invites visitors to reflect on the power of loss and the healing potential of grief. Located in PEM’s Jurrien Timmer Gallery — a space dedicated to contemplation and meditation — Remembrance features drawings and sculpture by Canadian artist Zachari Logan that are as much about life as they are about death. Through images of flowers, leaves, and bodies in various states of transformation, the exhibition reveals the latent beauty of decay, as well as the hope, growth, and new life that can emerge in its aftermath. Zachari Logan: Remembrance is on view May 7, 2022, through May 7, 2023. 

Logan’s ceramics and exquisite drawings – including an in situ drawing commission on PEM’s gallery walls – mix the wild and the cultivated, the strange and the familiar to immerse viewers in a field of beauty and desire that celebrates the natural world in all of its forms.​ 

“Across time and cultures, humans have routinely paid their respects and expressed their grief using the language of flowers,” said Siddhartha Shah, PEM’s Director of Education and Civic Engagement, Curator of South Asian Art and exhibition Curator. “Zachari Logan invites us to dwell in their potent symbolism and to discover a mirrored cycle of death and rebirth that is within us all.”

Zachari Logan, Mouth no. 3, from Wildman Series, 2019. Blue pencil on mylar. Courtesy of the Artist and Julie Saul Projects, NYC.

Logan’s work explores how the deep pain of heartbreak of mourning finds an enduring resonance with the fragile beauty of flowers and plants. The exhibition includes a portrait of 49 flowers commemorating June 12, 2016, when 49 innocent people were killed in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the deadliest attack on LGBTQ+ people in American history. His 2016 pastel on black paper, Wreath (Silhouette), prompts us to reconsider imagery of wreaths. Since ancient times, wreaths have served as funerary offerings, symbolizing eternal life and the indestructible spirit. But, when worn as a crown, wreaths can convey abundance, celebration, and fertility. Like the flowers and leaves that produce its form, it can, depending on your perspective, be a symbol of life or death, as well as the great mystery beyond. 

“When conscious grief is welcomed with tenderness and patience, it becomes an opportunity to sow new seeds of hope for the future,” adds Shah. “Our hope is that visitors – many of whom have experienced personal tragedy during the pandemic – find comfort in this exhibition and may embrace the invitation to transform their suffering in order to sow new seeds of hope for the future.”

About Zachari Logan 

Canadian artist Zachari Logan (b. 1980, Saskatoon) works mainly with large-scale drawing, ceramics and installation. Evolving a visual language exploring the intersections between identity, memory and landscape and place, Logan re-wilds his body as an expression of queerness. 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, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (NMOCA), 21cMuseums Hotel Collection and Thetis Foundation, among others. Logan has attended many residencies; including Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier MQ21 Program, the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, Wave Hill Botanical Gardens Winter Workspace Program in the Bronx and was artist in residence at the Tom Thomson Shack at the McMichael Gallery. 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 Globe and Mail, The Huffington Post, Border Crossings and Public Journal to name a few. Recent 2021 exhibitions include, Shadow Of The Sun: Ross Bleckner & Zachari Logan at Wave Hill Botanical Gardens and Ghost Meadows at Remai Modern. 

ABOUT THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM
Over the last 20 years, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has distinguished itself as one of the fastest-growing art museums in North America. Founded in 1799, it is also the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. At its heart is a mission to enrich and transform people’s lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of themselves and the wider world. PEM celebrates outstanding artistic and cultural creativity through exhibitions, programming, and special events that emphasize cross-cultural connections, integrate past and present, and underscore the vital importance of creative expression. The museum’s collection is among the finest of its kind boasting superlative works from around the globe and across time — including American art and architecture, Asian export art, photography, maritime art and history, Native American, Oceanic, and African art, as well as one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM’s campus offers a varied and unique visitor experience with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities, and performance spaces. Twenty-two noted historic structures grace PEM’s campus, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States. HOURS: Open Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 10 am–5 pm, and Fridays 10 am–7 pm. ADMISSION: Adults $20; seniors $18; students $12. Members, youth 16 and under, and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission. INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit pem.org.


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