Logan Hicks
Jen 300x484, spray paint stencil on street sign, 4 x 6 inches.
Logan Hicks has been active on the “lowbrow” art scene for the past decade. A native of Baltimore and current resident of San Diego, Hicks runs his own printing business, Workhouse Press, and his own online gallery, Workhouse Visuals.com. Discontented with the limited showing opportunities available to young artists, Hicks organized several major art shows, including ModArt (a 2000 San Diego show that attracted 2,000 people), Starscape (a 2000 Baltimore show that attracted 5,500 people), and Cloudwatch (a month-long 1999 Baltimore event that attracted 1,500 people).
The interview was conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com.
Can you tell me about your own development as an artist-—when you decided to study art, and what sorts of media you initially experimented with?
I had a great art teacher in 10th grade, Mr. Krush. I’d seen screen-printing and wanted to try it, and though he couldn’t teach me he allowed me to learn independently. I taught myself and went to art school, and then all through art school I never took a printing class. I thought I wanted to do graphic design, but I had jobs at screen-printing companies doing t-shirts the whole time. After college I had some bad experiences with work and lost money. I started my own screen-printing business and kept at it. Now I’m mostly doing spray paint stencils, which is a sort of different version of screen-printing. It has the same principles and follows the same process of layering color upon color.
Since studying at MICA you’ve been very involved in art organizing--you started your own online gallery and curated and produced several art shows. Were you encouraged to seek out alternative art paths at MICA, or was that something you came to on your own?
MICA taught me what I didn’t want to do, which in a way is more important-—I could cross things off my list. I got my inspiration from the West Coast art scene—-it’s got more of a foothold in a blue-collar approach. What I do is affordable; most of what I care for is affordable. I prefer to buy spray-paint at a hardware store rather than a $10 tube of paint at some overpriced art store.
I don’t like the high art world. I’m always leery of people who explain their art more than they show it. I think you should just go out and do stuff, and let other people put labels and stories on it.
Are you interested in signing with an established gallery, or do you prefer representing yourself and others?
I’d prefer to be represented, because I tend to neglect myself. I feel weird about people who curate a show and put themselves in it. It’s nice that I do my own stuff and push my own stuff, but it says more about an artist if someone else is pushing them.
How did you find the artists you represent in Workhorse Visuals?
Through word of mouth, magazines like Juxtapoz [Juxtapoz Art & Culture], and the web.
You’ve built up alternative art scenes in Baltimore and San Diego—-are you purposefully avoiding LA and NYC?
No. Actually I’m looking for a physical space for the gallery in LA or NY. I moved to San Diego because it wasn’t Baltimore. Baltimore was the only city I ever lived in, and I needed to leave to see that my success was based more on my talents than my contacts. If I do open a gallery I want it to be a source of income and not just a hobby. I don’t want people to come in, look around, not buy anything, and give me a pat on my back day after day. There’s just no way to have that happen in San Diego or Baltimore.
How did you get started curating and representing artists? Did you have a mentor?
No mentor per se, but I did search out people who’d gone before me. Curating wasn’t something I set out to do, but I wasn’t seeing what I wanted to see so I thought I’d do it myself. Baltimore has huge groups of talent-—there’s the Peabody Conservatory and the Maryland College of Art and Design and five or six other schools-—but there wasn’t an alternative art space. No one was showing kids coming out of school or people younger than 35-45. I wanted to fill that void. A few folks did parties with art, and I talked to them and saw where they went wrong. In 1997 I ran a weeklong showcase of art and music [“Cones and Rods”], pushed a couple thousand people through, and sold 33% of the art. It’s amazing for 18-20 year olds to spend money on anything that’s not beer.
What’s your advice for emerging artists?
Just do stuff. You fall on your face and keep doing stuff. Some people sit around and bitch that there’s a lack of this and that, and some people do stuff about it. Track down mentors and talk to people--that’s the only way anyone ever gets ahead.
What are your career goals?
Just to make a living off of my own talents. Over the past couple months I’ve been getting more graphic design and illustration jobs, so that’s happening. The gallery is something that’s a passion of mine, and my second goal is to establish the gallery in a physical space. I’ve been self-employed for seven years, and it gets lonely when it’s just you and a can of ink, huffing odors all day. I want a physical space where I can meet people and exchange information and sell art I like.
I never meant to be a curator or arts organizer. It’s not that hard to be self-employed though--just don’t get in debt early. The first six years out of school I lived in relative poverty. I slept on the floor next to screens. But I know I’ll be happier with my own destiny than grinding away 9-5 for someone else.
This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.
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