Artist Statement
My intention is to eliminate predictability and not be repetitive. Music can be repetitive, but there is always change, chords, syncopation, rhythm. I try to accomplish something similar in my art, something that is more than a pattern or a set of regulations. I prefer to not have music playing while I’m working because painting with liquified wax is nothing to play around with. I love looking at each finished painting with music so I can actually focus and listen.
James Little in Artforum
James Little holds a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art and an MFA from Syracuse University. He is a 2009 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for Painting. In addition to being featured prominently in the 2022 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY, his work has been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including at MoMA P.S.1, New York, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. His work has been included in The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver and traveling to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, with catalogue forthcoming. Recent solo exhibitions include Homecoming: Bittersweet, at Dixon Gallery & Gardens: Art Museum, Memphis, TN, with an accompanying catalogue, and an upcoming exhibition at Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL, in November 2022. In 2022, Little will also participate in a historic collaboration for Duke Ellington’s conceptual Sacred Concerts series at the Lincoln Center, New York, NY, with the New York Choral Society at the New School for Social Research and the Schomburg Center in New York, NY. His paintings are represented in the collections of numerous public and private collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Menil Collection in Houston; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Maatschappij Arti Et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Holland; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Newark Museum, Newark; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
JAMES LITTLE
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 • Black Stars & White Paintings, Kavi Gupta, Chicago
2022 • James Little: Homecoming, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis
2020 • James Little: Dots and Slants, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood
2018 • Slants and White Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2016 • Informed by Rhythm: Recent Work by James Little, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood
2015 • Color/Barriers: Recent Work, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2013 • Never Say Never, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2011 • Ex Pluribus Unum: New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2009 • De-classified, Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2007 • James Little: Untold Stories, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston
2005 • Reaching for the Sky, G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York
2003 • Beyond Geometry: New Paintings, L.I.C.K. Ltd. Fine Art, Long Island City
1995 • Recent Abstract Paintings, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
1992 • James Little: Selected Works from the Past Decade, Lubin House Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse
1990 • Tondos and Ovals, June Kelley Gallery, New York
1989 • James Little: Recent Paintings, Christian Science Church, Boston
1988 • James Little & Al LovingL New Work, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1988 • New York to Memphis, Alice Bingham Gallery, Memphis
1988 • New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1987 • New Paintings, Liz Harris Gallery, Boston
1985 • James Little: Format Paintings, Harris Brown Gallery, Boston
1982 • Recent Oil Paintings, Alternative Museum, New York
1976 • Paintings by James Little, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 • In These Truths, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
2022 • Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, New York
2021 • Abstraction & Social Critique, Kavi Gupta, Chicago
2021 • The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; traveling to Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR, in March 2022
2020 • Louise Nevelson and James Little, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, FL
2018 • Color/Line/Form, Rosenbaum Contemporary, FL
2017 • Celebrating 30 Years, Gallery Artists: Drawings and Photographs, June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
2016 • Circa 1970, curated by Lauren Haynes, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2016 • Beyond Borders: Bill Hutson & Friends, University Museums, Mechanical Hall Gallery, University of Delaware
2015 • Decoding the Abstract Unlimited Potential, curated by Tricia Laughlin Bloom, organized by the Newark Museum, NJ
2015 • Works on Paper: Selections from the Gallery, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA
2014 • Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges, Soft Curves, organized by Valeria Cassel Oliver, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX (catalogue)
2012 • Today’s Visual Language: Southern Abstraction, A Fresh Look, curated by Donan Klooz, Mobile Museum of Art, AL (digital catalogue)
2012 • What Only Paint Can Do, curated by Karen Wilkin, Triangle Arts Association, Brooklyn, NY
2011 • ABSTRACTION (Abstraction to the Power of Infinity), curated by Janet Kurnatowski, organized by the American Abstract Artists, The Ice Box, Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2010 • Abstract Relations, collaboration of the University of Maryland David C. Driskell Center and the University of Delaware Museums, curated by Dr. Julie L. McGee and Dr. Adrienne L. Childs, Mechanical Hall Gallery, Mineralogical Museum, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
2010 • Its A Wonderful 10th, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2008 • Shape Shifters: New York Painters, The A.D. Gallery, University of North Caroline at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC (catalogue)
2007 • Three One-Man Exhibitions: James Little Aimé Mpane, George Smith, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX (brochure)
2006 • The 181st Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy of Design, New York, NY (catalogue)
2006 • Neo-Plastic Redux, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
2005 • Different Ways of Seeing: The Expanding World of Abstraction, Noyes Museum of Contemporary Art, Oceanville, NJ
2005 • Optical Stimulations: American Abstract Artists, Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, NY
2005 • 50 Plus, Netherlands Tunnel Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2005 • Raising the Bar: James Little and Thornton Willis, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2004 • Seeds and Roots: Selections from the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2004 • A Century of African American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
2004 • Abstract Identity, Pelham Art Center, New York, NY
2003 • Theories: Abstract New York, Roger Ramsay Gallery, Chicago, IL
TIMELINE
1980 • Little’s work is included in the exhibition “Afro-American Abstraction” at MoMA PS1
1982 • Alternative Museum in New York hosts James Little’s first NY solo exhibition
1987 • Exhibits new paintings with Liz Harris Gallery in Boston
1988 • Begins working with June Kelly Gallery with two exhibitions
1990 • Debuts tondo and oval paintings in New York
1992 • Returns to Syracuse University with a selection of works over the past decade
1998 • Participates in traveling institutional group exhibition, including De Beyerd Center for Contemporary Art
and the Frans Hals Museum
2000 • New York group exhibitions at The Painting Center and Smack Mellon Studios
2002 • Group exhibitions continue throughout the US at The Station in Houston
2004 • Painting acquired by The Studio Museum in Harlem is exhibited in group exhibition
2005 • Solo exhibition at G. R. N’Namdi Gallery accompanied my catalogue and essays
2007 • Installs solo institutional exhibition at Station Museum of Contemporary Art
2009 • Third solo exhibition at June Kelly Gallery
2010 • Traveling exhibition of American abstract paintings at the University of Maryland and University of Delaware
2011 • Fourth solo exhibition with June Kelly Gallery in New York
2012 • Participates in survey of Southern Abstraction at the Mobile Museum of Art
2015 • Institutional group exhibition at the Newark Museum
2016 • Debut solo exhibition in Los Angeles with Louis Stern Fine Arts of “Dots and Slants” paintings
2016 • Included in show on painting in the 1970s at The Studio Museum in Harlem
2020 • Painting from permanent collection of Saint Louis Art Museum included in The Shape of Abstraction