A difficult beauty: this artist's work is as vast and stunning as the Prairies

Saskatoon-based visual artist Zachari Logan's works explore spaces in Saskatchewan that are rarely given a second thought: the ditches by the side of the road. His latest pastel drawings illustrate vibrant flowers, insects and animals — varieties that he has collected or seen on his artist residences around the world — and place them in the velvety darkness of these forgotten roadside spaces.

His show on now at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, titled A Natural History of Unnatural Things, presents both his drawings and ceramic installations. The exhibition allows for a full appreciation of the Sobey Award long-listed artist's body of work, juxtaposing his earlier nude self-portraits with these recent large-scale and small-scale pastel drawings.

As soon as you look at a landscape you are imbuing yourself into it, before you try to draw it or describe it with words.- Zachari Logan

In this video, produced by Mercedes Grundy and directed by filmmaker Jeremy Ratzlaff, we meet Zachari Logan in Regina and then Moose Jaw to find out how he connects his art work with the Saskatchewan landscape, and how his work is exploring the space for queer bodies in the Prairies. 

Zachari Logan. Apr 28-Aug 26 at Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery. 461 Langdon Crescent, Moose Jaw, SK. 306-692-4471.