LOGAN SELF- PORTRAITS
WILLSE
Domestic agenda (brides/maids, matron of/ honor, flower /girl, mother of /the bride, bride) A Buncha Small Pictures
Two Solo exhibits April 12 to June30, 2026
Artist Statement
For Juan Logan: Self-Portraits at Schmidt/Dean Gallery, I approach self-portraiture as an abstract, constructed language rather than a literal depiction. Each work, created in 2024 on shaped canvas or polyester fiber, uses form, color, and surface to examine how identity is held, fragmented, and reassembled.
The shaped supports function as both boundary and body, containers that suggest presence while resisting fixed definition. Within these forms, I juxtapose structure and improvisation: geometric elements imply systems of order and memory, while organic shapes evoke accumulation, disruption, and lived experience.
These works are not portraits of appearance, but of condition, mapping the tension between interior space and external reality, between coherence and dispersion. Together, the paintings propose identity as fluid, contingent, and continuously negotiated.
Juan Logan 2026
All work is Acrylic on fiber 36 x 30
Juan Logan
Domestic agenda(brides/maids, matron of/honor, flower/girl, mother of the bride)
A buncha small pictures
The works in this exhibition represent a conceptually based approach to art making. While at times resembling formalist exercises, they strategically employ found images and language or word fragments created through overlapping or layering, with the hope that new meaning or meanings might emerge. The work is content driven and is concerned with a variety of issues that call into question the work ‘s true meaning. Marcel Duchamp remains the model. (Virgin to Bride). At some level, I’m interested in cultural rituals: whether epic or otherwise. In this instance, weddings and bridal party players: bride, mother of the bride, matron of honor, flower girl, etc. in this work, the use of wedding party designations is arbitrary. It exists in this body of work as found language. To further muddy the waters, if I see a color, do I just see the color or is there also the word the color represents, that I also experience. Likewise, in one’s own mind, what does mother of the bride mean? Is there a hierarchy that’s conditioned by context?
Ultimately, the viewer has to consider, whether all brides are beautiful. And if so, the work must exist autonomously on an aesthetic level. Maybe, I am a formalist.
michael willse march 17, 2026
Michael Willse All work is Mixed Media on panel 14.5 x 11.5
