Logan Hicks: Love Never Saved Anything

Lori Zimmer
Feb 20, 2014 7:25PM

Save the Date! Master stencil artist and crazy urban explorer Logan Hicks' upcoming solo show, "Love Never Saved Anything," (he's so emo) is his probably his most personal yet. Layers and layers and layers of stencils go into each painting, which are a departure from his iconic architectural scenes that portray the feeling of urban isolation. The new body of work includes a series of underwater paintings, each with floating figures -that to me have the same feeling of being somewhat lost that his architectural pieces evoke.  He'll also be showing some of his amazing urban exploration photos including the time he climbed out on the eagles on the Chrysler Building, or that time he explored all kinds of tunnels in the subway in Paris and New York. Opens March 7 at 154 Stanton.

PMM Art Projects announces a special pop-up exhibition of New York based artist, Logan Hicks, featuring nautical-based stencil paintings as well as photographs from his infamous urban explorations. On view at 154 Stanton Street (Lower East Side, New York) from March 7 through 19, 2014, Love Never Saved Anything is Logan’s second solo show with PMM Art Projects and his most ambitious work to date.

While much of Logan’s work deals with the often analytical, highly contemplative view of the urban environment, the paintings in Love Never Saved Anything were born out of the artist’s experiences and personal set backs this past year. The challenges led him to explore underwater photography as inspiration for these paintings. Logan explains, “The drifting, the weightlessness was how I felt internally. It seemed like the perfect way to capture what I was going through - adrift in a sea of uncertainty.” Having lived near the sea all his life, maritime themes have always been a unique influence for him, but are more explicit in this new body of work. Both haunting and elegant, his new paintings incorporate references from nautical superstitions and sailor traditions and showcase the range of perspectives from which the artist sees his environment.

Logan is well-known for his work as a street artist and urban explorer – seeking out and discovering places that few have seen. From abandoned subway stations to dilapidated buildings, a series of new photographs will be showcased depicting forbidden areas of theurban environment and unique vantage points. While the nautical-based paintings inform the viewer of the self-discovery process through internal investigation, this photographic body of work continues the artist’s external exploration and will be on view on the bottom floor of the gallery.

Logan Hicks: Love Never Saved Anything will be on view daily, 11:00am to 7:00pm from March 7 through March 19th, 2014 at 154 Stanton Street, New York.

ABOUT LOGAN HICKSLogan Hicks is a New York-based artist whose work explores the dynamics of the urban environment through photography, stencil paintings and street art. Using photographs taken during his international travels as a point of departure, he creates intricate multi-layered stencils and aerosol spray to build the image. The labor-intensive process sometimes involves as many as 15 different stencil layers and can take up to a month to complete each work.

Logan was one of two artists personally selected by Banksy to represent the USA at the 2008 Cans Festival in London. He has twice shown at the prestigious NuArt festival in Stavanger,Norway. His work is on permanent display at the late real estate developer Tony Goldman's Wynwood Walls arts compound in Miami as well as the Goldman Collection in New York. He has shown in nearly 20 countries throughout his career and has had notable exhibitions in cities like Melbourne, Hong Kong, Oslo, Paris and London. His first exhibition with PMM Art Projects was in 2013 at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in Los Angeles. Upcoming 2014international exhibitions include shows in Istanbul, Turkey, and Basel, Switzerland.

Lori Zimmer