James Little
Born1952 (age 71–72)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
EducationMemphis Academy of Art (BFA 1974),
Syracuse University (MFA 1976)
Occupation(s)Painter, curator
Known forGeometric abstraction

James Little (born 1952)[1] is an American painter and curator. He is known for his works of geometric abstraction which are often imbued with exuberant color.[2] He has been based in New York City.

Early life and education

Little was born in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee,[1] and grew up in the segregated American South.[2][3] He is from an African American family.[4]

He studied at the Memphis Academy of Art (now known as Memphis College of Art), while a student his work was praised and selected in 1973 for an exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center by Gerald Nordland.[5] He received his BFA degree from Memphis Academy of Art in 1974.[1] In 1976, Little obtained his MFA degree from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.[6][7]

Career

Little cites Mitchell along with Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Alma Thomas, and George L. K. Morris as among the artists whose work he most admires. He has said of the modus operandi of his own work (that)......"Abstraction provided me with self-determination and free will. It was liberating. I don’t find freedom in any other form. People like to have an answer before they have the experience. Abstraction doesn’t offer you that."[3][8] Critic Karen Wilkin has called Little's work (as possessing of a) “ravishing physicality" and . . . "orchestrations of geometry and chroma to delight our eyes and stir our emotions and intellect...”.[9]

In 1976, his work was the subject of the solo exhibition Paintings by James Little curated by Ronald Kutcha at the Everson Museum in Syracuse. In 1980, Little's work was included in the exhibition "Afro-American Abstraction", curated by April Kingsley, at MoMA PS1.[10][6] [11]

In 2002, Little's large commission for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was unveiled. Riders at Jamaica Station now travel through his 85-foot-long environment made of 33 multicolored laminated glass panels in a prismatic design, each measuring at 17-feet tall by 5-feet wide.[4][12]

In 2020, some of Little's large-scale black-tone paintings were shown in a two-artist exhibition with the work of Louise Nevelson, who was represented exclusively by the black colored sculptures, for which she is most known. The exhibition titled Louise Nevelson + James Little ran from September 3, 2020 until October 28, 2020 at Rosenbaum Contemporary in Boca Raton, Florida.[13][14]

Little's work was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial.[15]

Little currently teaches at the Art Students League of New York. Little was formerly represented by the June Kelly Gallery in Manhattan and is now represented by Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood and the Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago where his work will be the subject of a forthcoming solo exhibition in November 2022.[5][4][16]

His work is the subject of the 2005 paperback edition James Little: Reaching for the Sky which features 13 color reproductions of his pieces and essays by Robert C. Morgan, George N'Namdi, Al Loving, Robert Costa, Horace Brockington, and James Haritas.[17]

Awards

In 2009, Little won a Joan Mitchell Foundation award.[18] He has also been the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.[19]

Curation

In 2019 Little curated the exhibition "New York Centric" at the American Fine Arts Society gallery which included the work of multiple generations of abstract artists associated with the great Metropolis including Alma Thomas, Alvin Loving, Larry Poons, Stanley Boxer, Peter Reginato, Dan Christensen, Ronnie Landfield, Gabriele Evertz, Charles Hinman, Thornton Willis, Doug Ohlson, Robert Swain, and Ed Clark.[20][21][22]

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Beyond Borders: Bill Hutson & Friends, University Museums, Mechanical Hall Gallery, University of Delaware

Outside the Lines: Color Across the Collections, curated by Tricia Laughlin Bloom, organized by the Newark Museum, NJ Works on Paper: Selections from the Gallery, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA.

of exhibitions, Mobile Museum of Art, AL; digital catalogue What Only Paint Can Do, curated by Karen Wilkin, Triangle Arts Association, Brooklyn, NY

It’s A Wonderful 10th, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2007 Three One-Man Exhibitions: James Little, Aimé Mpane, George Smith, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX; brochure

The Noyes Museum of Contemporary Art, Oceanville, NJ Optical Stimulations: American Abstract Artists, Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, NY 50 Plus, Holland Tunnel Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Raising the Bar: James Little and Thornton Willis, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

A Century of African American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection, University of Delaware, Newark, DE Abstract Identity, Pelham Art Center, NY

Ajita – Unconquerable, The Station, Houston, TX; catalogue 500 Works on Paper, Gary Snyder Fine Art, New York Amplified Abstraction, Chapel, Plantage, Doklaan 8-12, Amsterdam, Holland

Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY; catalogue Dialog and Discourse, Dolan Center Gallery, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, NY

Straight Painting, The Painting Center, New York

The Art of Absolute Desire, 450 Broadway, New York The Power of Drawing, Westbeth Gallery, New York

Association, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY New York Eight, Luise Ross Gallery, New York Works On, With and Made Out of Paper, Sideshow 195, Brooklyn, NY The African-American Fine Arts Collection of the New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ Postcards from Black America, curated by Rob Perrée, De Beyerd, Center for Contemporary Art in Breda, Netherlands, and the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands; catalogue de leugenaars/the liars (I) Helder en Verzadigd Clear and Saturated, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Holland Color, Matter, Energy, Galerie Maria Chailloux, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Holland

References

  1. ^ a b c Ploski, Harry A.; Williams, James; Williams, James De Bois (1989). The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African American. Gale Research. p. 1061. ISBN 978-0-8103-7706-6.
  2. ^ a b "James Little's Black Paintings are a 'Volley of Minimalist Ideals' Exposing the Drama, Richness, and Contrasting Values of Black". Culturetype.com. October 22, 2020.
  3. ^ a b McGee, Celia (1 January 2011). "Driven to Abstraction". ARTnews. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  4. ^ a b c Sheets, Hilarie M. (March 19, 2020). "Color and Design Matter. So Does Optimism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  5. ^ a b "James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks". Bomb. April 19, 2017.
  6. ^ a b "James Little Bio". Junekellygallery.com.
  7. ^ "James Little".
  8. ^ "12 Standouts at the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Where Poetic Reflections on Past Two Years Shine Brightly". 29 March 2022.
  9. ^ Panero, James (June 2013). "Gallery chronicle". The New Criterion.
  10. ^ "MoMA through Time".
  11. ^ "Installation view of "Challenge of the Will" (1979) by James Little in the P.S. 1 exhibition, "Afro-American Abstraction" (February 17-April 6, 1980)". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  12. ^ "MTA - Arts & Design | LIRR Permanent Art". Web.mta.info. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Exhibitions Debut Across the Palm Beaches". 4 September 2020.
  14. ^ "Louise Nevelson + James Little | September 8 - October 31, 2020 - Overview". Rosenbaum Contemporary. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  15. ^ Durón, Maximilíano (25 January 2022). "Taking the Title 'Quiet as It's Kept,' 2022 Whitney Biennial Names 63 Participating Artists". ARTnews. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  16. ^ "Forthcoming James Little | 12 November - 20 December 2022". Kavi Gupta Gallery. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  17. ^ James Little: Reaching for the Sky. G.R. N'Namdi Gallery. January 2005.
  18. ^ "James Little". Joan Mitchell Foundation. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  19. ^ "Chromatic Rhythm — James Little: Paintings on Paper – Department of Art and Art History". 11 August 2021.
  20. ^ "New York-Centric". Asllinea.org. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  21. ^ Corwin, William (1 May 2019). "New York-Centric". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  22. ^ "Paint, abstract art, focus of James Little curated exhibition at Art Students League". 21 March 2019.
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