Show Preview | Logan Maxwell Hagege

Los Angeles, CA
Maxwell Alexander Gallery, November 4-December 2

Logan Maxwell Hagege, Bloom, oil, 16 x 20.

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

In a dozen new oil paintings on view at Maxwell Alexander Gallery this month, Los Angeles, CA, native Logan Maxwell Hagege spotlights the land and native cultures of northern New Mexico. Many of these figurative works range in size from 16 by 20 to 40 by 40 inches, but the solo exhibition also features several smaller pieces that offer new collectors a unique opportunity to purchase an original artwork. The show opens on Saturday, November 4, with an artist’s reception at 6:30 p.m.

The light, colors, and people of the Southwest have long inspired Hagege’s landscapes and figurative works, and in his latest collection, he combines the two genres in his portrayals of contemporary Native Americans who primarily reside near Taos and Santa Fe. “There are other places in the West I’m attracted to and keep going back to, and New Mexico is on the top of that list,” says Hagege. “It’s just an inspired feeling I get from the native cultures, the artists, and the art itself.”

Among Hagege’s new works are depictions of Apache, Navajo, and Taos Pueblo natives, but the artist says his paintings are less about representing specific tribes and more about honoring the individual people he portrays. He spends hours with his subjects while photographing them, developing personal connections with them as he works, and he commonly returns to the same models over time. “The people in Logan’s figurative works are his friends,” says gallery owner Beau Alexander. “He doesn’t make up their faces or clothing. His interest isn’t in creating a romantic fairy tale of what Native Americans looked like a hundred years ago.”

Neither is Hagege interested in creating photographic reproductions of the landscapes he incorporates into these works. Although he uses reference photographs and sketches in his studio, the artist mostly relies on his recollections of a place. “My memories get distilled down into a simplified image,” he explains. “These images are burned into my brain, rather than me copying something specific.”

Hagege’s crisp, modern designs are a leaner, brighter version of the classical style he studied years ago at an atelier, where he honed his skills in anatomy, color, and other fundamentals of realism. “The reason Logan is able to depart from an overly realistic style is that he has a strong grasp of those technical aspects,” notes Alexander, “so he can leave details out and simplify a scene to create more of a feeling than a picture.”

Among Hagege’s most significant influences is 19th-century painter Gustav Klimt, whose use of flat, basic shapes against three-dimensionally rendered forms and patterns inspired his own sense of design, he says. Yet Hagege has achieved a style entirely his own, and it’s one the western art community fully embraces. In the past several years, he has garnered top awards at Masters of the American West and other prestigious western art exhibitions. “Logan has created a style that has opened up a whole new movement in art,” says Alexander. “I’ve met young artists who specifically list him as one of their influences.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
310.839.9242
www.maxwellalexandergallery.com

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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