Gradle example to exclude commons-logging from Spring frameworks.

    compile('org.springframework:spring-webmvc:4.2.4.RELEASE'){
        exclude group: 'commons-logging', module: 'commons-logging'

If you have multiple Spring dependencies, you have to exclude for each

    compile('org.springframework:spring-webmvc:4.2.4.RELEASE'){
        exclude group: 'commons-logging', module: 'commons-logging'
    compile('org.springframework:spring-test:4.2.4.RELEASE'){
        exclude group: 'commons-logging', module: 'commons-logging'

A better solution is excluding commons-logging at the project level.

	configurations.all {
	    exclude group: "commons-logging", module: "commons-logging"
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-webmvc:4.2.4.RELEASE'
    compile 'org.springframework:spring-test:4.2.4.RELEASE'

References

1. Spring MVC + Logback SLF4j example
2. Gradle – Display project dependency