James Little: Whitney Biennial Selected Artist
Selected Artist for the 2022 Whitney Biennial:
Quiet as It's Kept, April 6 – September 5, 2022
James Little is an American abstract artist whose distinctive aesthetic language is rooted in geometric shapes and patterns, flat surfaces, and emotive color relationships. Little utilizes a method similar to the encaustic painting technique used by ancient Egyptian and Greek artists, blending handmade pigments with hot beeswax.
While developing his unique position within contemporary abstraction, Little has devoted decades to rigorous academic study of color theory, pictorial design, and painting techniques. His practice embodies the complementary forces of simplicity and complexity.
“I’m not cutting edge,” he says. “I’m just trying to stand up next to the great paintings of the past. It’s like building a building. The things that are going to make it stand are the same as they’ve always been. You have to have a solid foundation. I approach painting the same way.”
Speaking about Kenneth Noland, one painter who influenced him early on, Little says, “I just liked the way he went about it. It had immediacy to it, it was fresh, it had to do with color and design and feeling. There was nothing else. He was just another country guy who was making some great paintings.”
About social messages in his art, Little says, “I am politically conscious and pissed off about a lot of this stuff that’s going on as much as anybody. But I can’t allow situations like that to get in the way of my aesthetic intent. If the situation changed overnight, and we had a utopia, where there was no more racism, there were no more police killings, and everybody got along…what would I do then, paint a perfect world? I mean that’s not what drives me.”
Rather than directly addressing the social and political turmoils of the moment, Little chose abstraction because it was a field in which he could express his free will. What drives his continued experiments is a single, burning question that he has never stopped trying to answer for himself: What makes a great painting great?
If he can find the answer, he says he might be able to “advance abstract painting in America.” The quiet confidence of Little’s aspiration is matched by the steady, undeniable life force of his paintings.
Little holds a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art and an MFA from Syracuse University. He is a 2009 recipient of the Joan Mitchel 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 forthcoming catalogue. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Homecoming: Bittersweet, at Dixon Gallery & Gardens: Art Museum, Memphis, TN, with an accompanying catalogue, and at Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL, in 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; DeMenil 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; and Newark Museum, Newark.
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James LittleRaw Power, 2020Oil and wax on linen72 x 72 x 1 1/2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleGorilla, 2019Oil and wax on linen72 x 72 x 1 1/2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleDecoy, 2019Oil and wax on linen72 x 72 x 1 1/2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleCubist Rendezvous, 2019Oil and wax on linen72 x 72 x 1 1/2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleBlack Star, 2015Oil and wax on linen72 x 72 x 1 1/2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm -
James Little7th Avenue, 2018Raw pigment on canvas30 x 40 x 2 1/4 in
76.2 x 101.6 x 5.7 cm -
James LittleBlue Slant 2, 2018Raw pigment on canvas30 x 40 x 2 1/4 in
76.2 x 101.6 x 5.7 cm -
James LittleJump Start, 2016Raw pigment on canvas33 1/4 x 41 1/2 x 1 1/2 in
84.5 x 105.4 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleCheckered Past, 2017Raw pigment on canvas33 1/4 x 41 1/2 x 1 1/2 in
84.5 x 105.4 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleRecognizable Difference, 2016Raw pigment on canvas33 1/4 x 41 1/2 x 1 1/2 in
84.5 x 105.4 x 3.8 cm -
James LittleCheckered Republic, 2017Raw pigment on canvas32 x 40 in
81.3 x 101.6 cm -
James LittleGrey Noise, 2019Raw Pigment on canvas32 x 40 in
81.3 x 101.6 cm -
James LittleRoyal Blood, 2018Raw Pigment on canvas32 x 40 in
81.3 x 101.6 cm -
James LittleLittle Legacy of Thieves and Pundits, 2009Oil and wax on canvas50 x 95 in
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James Little4 Gypsy, 2008Oil and wax on canvas
Collection of Ricardo Braglia74 x 96 x 1 1/2 in
188 x 243.8 x 3.8 cm -
James LittlePortrait of a Star, 2001Oil and wax on canvas74 x 96 in
188 x 243.8 cm -
James LittleNear Miss, 2008Pigment on paper72 1/2 x 94 in
184.2 x 238.8 cm -
James LittleRe-Set (study), 2017Raw pigment on paper16 x 20 in
40.6 x 50.8 cm -
James LittleStudy for Titan's Cube, 2015Raw pigment on paper16 x 20 in
40.6 x 50.8 cm -
James LittleSmall Study For Painting, 2017Raw pigment on paper16 x 20 in
40.6 x 50.8 cm -
James LittleStudy for Einstein's Axion, 2006Raw pigment on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleToo Close to Call (study), 2015Raw pigment on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James Little(Study for) If only, 2010Raw pigment on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleAmerican Dream Denied (Study), 2011Raw pigment on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleSmall Study For Painting, 2009Raw pigment on paper16 x 20 in
40.6 x 50.8 cm -
James LittleStudy for Desert Delivery, 2011Raw pigment on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleSurrender Is Not An Option, 2014Oil and wax on canvas72 1/2 x 94 in
184.2 x 238.8 cm -
James LittleHidden Figures, 2018Oil on linen28 x 36 in
71.1 x 91.4 cm -
James LittleKing's Caravan, 2018Oil on linen31 x 41 in
78.7 x 104.1 cm -
James LittleLate Hit, 2018Oil on linen32 x 40 in
81.3 x 101.6 cm -
James LittleMis-count, 2019Oil on linen39 x 50 in
99.1 x 127 cm -
James LittleMistaken Identity, 2018Oil on linen32 x 30 in
81.3 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleReverse Migration, 2018Oil on linen31 x 41 in
78.7 x 104.1 cm -
James LittleSmall Favors, 2018Oil on linen28 x 36 in
71.1 x 91.4 cm -
James LittleInmate Number 7053 and Her Followers, 2019Oil on linen39 x 50 x 2 in
99.1 x 127 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2014Ink on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleUntitled, 2011Oil and wax on linen24 x 24 x 2 in
61 x 61 x 5.1 cm -
James LittleEl-Shabazz (D), 1985Oil and wax on canvas24 3/4 x 24 3/4 in
63 x 63 cm -
James LittleEl-Shabazz (C), 1985Oil and wax on canvas24 3/4 x 24 3/4 in
63 x 63 cm -
James LittleEl-Shabazz (B), 1985Oil and wax on canvas24 3/4 x 24 3/4 in
63 x 63 cm -
James LittleEl-Shabazz (A), 1985Oil and wax on canvas24 3/4 x 24 3/4 in
63 x 63 cm
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Forthcoming, James Little
Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St Fl. 1 12 Nov - 20 Dec 2022 -
Sweet 16 featuring James Little,
The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN 17 Apr - 10 Jul 2022Dixon Gallery and Gardens present sixteen gallery spaces with independent, Dixon-organized exhibitions, featuring the exhibition James Little: Homecoming. From Dixon Gallery and Gardens: For more than four decades, James Litle...Read more -
James Little in the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1 Apr - 5 Sep 2022Artist James Little, represented by Kavi Gupta in Chicago, standing with three of his Black paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial.Read more -
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse
Crystal Bridges Museum | Bentonville, AR 12 Mar - 15 Jul 2022Traveling to Crystal Bridges in 2022: The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, examines southern aesthetic and musical...Read more -
In These Truths
Albright-Knox Northland, Buffalo, New York 19 Feb - 5 Jun 2022In These Truths is an exhibition of works by Black cultural producers, co-curated by two of Buffalo’s most influential, charismatic, and insightful artists, Edreys Wajed and Aitina Fareed-Cooke, in collaboration...Read more -
Abstraction & Social Critique
Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Floor 1, Chicago, IL, 60607 23 Oct 2021 - 1 Jan 2022Kavi Gupta proudly presents Abstraction and Social Critique, an intergenerational group show of artists whose aesthetic positions declare the continued relevance and influence of abstraction. The artist James Little, whose...Read more -
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts | Richmond, VA 22 May - 6 Sep 2021The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, investigates the aesthetic impulses of early 20th-century Black culture that have...Read more -
Louise Nevelson + James Little
Rosenbaum Contemporary | Boca Raton, FL 8 Sep - 30 Oct 2020Louise Nevelson + James Little, an exhibition pairing Nevelson’s monochromatic black sculptures with Little’s new series of large-scale, black-toned paintings. While at first glance the pairing of Nevelson’s works with...Read more -
James Little: Beyond Geometry
The Art Students League, New York, NY 20 Jul - 1 Dec 2020This brochure documents the exhibition “James Little: Beyond Geometry” which was to have been installed in March, 2020, but was delayed by the international health emergency. “Born in Memphis, Tennessee,...Read more -
James Little, The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection
St. Louis Museum | St. Louis, MO 17 Sep 2019 - 11 Oct 2020The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection presents paintings, drawings, and prints by five generations of black artists who have revolutionized abstract art since the 1940s. The exhibition...Read more -
New York–Centric Curated by James Little
Gallery of the American Fine Arts Society | Student Arts League, NYC 5 Mar - 5 May 2019I organized this exhibition with the following requirements in mind: the work should be abstract, produced in or around New York during the latter half of the 20th or beginning...Read more -
Circa 1970
Studio Museum Harlem | Harlem, NYC 17 Nov 2016 - 2 Apr 2017Circa 1970 presents paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture from the Studio Museum’s collection. The featured works, all made between 1970 and 1979, reflect the historical, socio-political and cultural landscapes...Read more -
Outside the Lines Color Across the Collections
The Newark Museum of Art | Newark, NJ 19 Sep 2015 - 10 Jan 2016Outside the Lines: Color Across the Collections presents modern and contemporary works from the Museum’s four main permanent collections—African, American, Asian and Decorative Arts. Featuring a number of recent acquisitions,...Read more -
Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves (Outside the Lines series)
Contemporary Art Museum | Houston, TX 25 Jan - 23 Mar 2014Conceived as the companion to Black in the Abstract, Part 1: Epistrophy, which explored the fragmentation of the figurative as well as the loose and expansive nature of abstraction, this...Read more -
Three One-Man Exhibitions: James Little, Aimé Mpane, George Smith
Station Museum of Contemporary Art | Houston, TX 16 Sep 2007 - 1 Mar 2008Great artistic skill, truthfulness, idealism, vision and passion are fundamental to the creation of a profoundly spiritual art. In this ravaged time of endless war, a fresh approach to the...Read more -
Seeds and Roots Selections from the Permanent Collection
The Studio Museum | Harlem, NYC 15 Jul - 25 Sep 2004Unearthing the past, present and future of the Studio Museum’s permanent collection, Seeds and Roots digs deep into our garden of artful delights. Organized by SMH Chief Curator Thelma Golden...Read more -
Malcolm X: Man, Ideal, Icon
Walker Art Center | Minneapolis, MN 12 Dec 1992 - 4 Apr 1993WIth works by such artists as James Little, David Hammons, Glenn Ligon, Malcolm X: Man, Ideal, Icon explores the cultural and political legacy of one of the most galvanizing African-American...Read more -
Afro-American Abstraction
MoMA PS1 | NYC 17 Feb - 16 Apr 1980This is the world I want to live in,” thought artist Lorraine O’Grady while attending the opening of Afro-American Abstraction at P.S.1 in 1981. “I found myself surrounded by...Read more -
Another Generation: Contemporary Abstractionists
Studio Museum Harlem | Harlem, NYC 1 Apr - 1 Jul 1979Group exhibition. Included: Frank Bowling, Barbara Chase-Riboud, John Dowell, James Little, Al Loving, Joe Overstreet, Howardena Pindell, Martin Puryear, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, et al.Read more
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Congratulations James Little on being included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial
January 25, 2022The 2022 Whitney Biennial, featuring James Little. April 6 - September 5th, New York, NY Kavi Gupta congratulates painter James Little on his inclusion in...Read more -
James Little in The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse at VMFA
June 15, 2021On view May 22, 2021 – September 6, 2021 The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum...Read more -
See The Shape of Abstraction at the St. Louis Art Museum
July 2, 2020The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection presents paintings, drawings, and prints by five generations of Black artists who have revolutionized abstract art...Read more -
James Little for The Colorist by Kith & New Balance
January 27, 2020James Little is a prolific colorist who creates his own colors with pure pigment and heated beeswax and layers each hue multiple times in parallel...Read more -
Conversation With the Artist: James Little: Beyond Geometry, Beyond Race at the Newark Museum
November 8, 2015Artist James Little and American Art curator Tricia Laughlin Bloom discuss Little's body of work. See his work on view in the Museum's exhibition Outside...Read more
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A Long Overdue Recognition: James Little Finally Gets His Turn in the Spotlight at this Year’s Whitney Biennial
ArtNews, May 2, 2022 -
James Little: The 2022 Whitney Biennial Expands the Scope of 'American' Art
Vivian Chiu, Ocula, April 27, 2022 -
James Little: The Single Best Work in the Whitney Biennial
Dana Gordon, New York Sun, April 18, 2022 -
James Little: Whitney Biennial 2022: Artist Installations That Stole the Show
Simon Fisher, Eva Fuchs, Rory Mitchell , Ocula, April 8, 2022 -
James Little: A Glimpse into This Year's Whitney Biennial
Marley Marius, Vogue, April 2, 2022 -
James Little: At the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Compelling Works
Ayanna Dozier, Artsy, March 31, 2022 -
James Little: A Whitney Biennial of Shadow and Light
Holland Cotter, New York Times, March 31, 2022 -
James Little: A Sharp, Understated Whitney Biennial Looks to the Past to Process the Grief of the Present
Alex Greenberger , ARTNews, March 30, 2022 -
James Little: 12 Standouts at the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Where Poetic Reflections on Past Two Years Shine Brightly
Maximilíano Durón, ARTNews, March 29, 2022 -
James Little in the 2022 Whitney Biennial
Kavi Gupta, Kavi Gupta Blog, January 25, 2022 -
James Little’s Black Paintings are a ‘Volley of Minimalist Ideals’ Exposing the Drama, Richness, and Contrasting Values
Victoria L. Valentine, Culture Type, October 22, 2020 -
Going Beyond Geometry James Little’s Social Abstraction
William Corwin, The Arcade Project, August 15, 2020 -
Color and Design Matter. So Does Optimism.
Hilarie M. Sheets, New York Times, March 19, 2020 -
Interview: James Little Talks “The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection” at Saint Louis Art Museum
Matthew Kistner, ReviewSTL, October 23, 2019 -
A Curator Finds Inspiration In Abstract Expressionism at The American Fine Arts Society Gallery
Gary Duff, Gotham, April 3, 2019 -
Artseen: New York-Centric
William Corwin, Brooklyn Rail, March 5, 2019 -
James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks
LeRonn P. Brooks, BOMB, April 19, 2017 -
Studio visit: James Little
James Panero, New Criterion, May 3, 2013 -
Driven to Abstraction
Celia McGee, ARTnews, January 1, 2011 -
NY Times Art in Review: James Little
Holland Cotter, New York Times, June 5, 2009 -
James Little with Benjamin La Rocco
Benjamin La Rocco, Brooklyn Rail, May 1, 2009
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James Little: Chromatic Rhythm
The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, Tuscaloosa, AL 2021 Read more -
The Shape of Abstraction
Selections From The Ollie Collection, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO Read more -
Afro-American abstraction: An exhibition of contemporary painting and sculpture by nineteen black American artists
April Kingsley, 1981 Read more -
Color / Line / Form
Published by Rosenbaum Contemporary, 2018 Read more -
James Little
2021 Read more -
James Little: Beyond Geometry
Published by The Lobby Gallery Park Avenue and 59th Street, New York, NY. 2020 Read more -
James Little: Reaching for the Sky
George N'Namdi, Al Loving, Robert Costa, Horace Brockington, Robert C. Morgan, James Haritas, 2005 Read more -
James Little: Untold Stories
James Harithas, 2007 Read more -
Louise Nevelson + James Little
Published by Rosenbaum Contemporary, 2020 Read more -
The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection
2020 Read more
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EXPO CHICAGO 2022
7 - 10 Apr 2022It is with great excitement that Kavi Gupta celebrates the return of EXPO Chicago. After almost three years, we are once again able to spotlight...Read more -
Celebrating James Little at the Whitney Biennial
30 Mar 2022 -
Kavi Gupta, Felix LA 2022
The Hollywood Roosevelt, Los Angeles, CA 17 - 20 Feb 2022Kavi Gupta looks forward to the 2022 edition of Felix Art Fair, at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel in Los Angeles. As part of our ongoing...Read more -
Kavi Gupta Pop-Up Exhibition in Palm Beach
Part of the Arts & Conversations Series 7 - 21 Dec 2021Presenting a Kavi Gupta Pop-Up Exhibition in Palm Beach December 7 – December 27, 2021 1608 S Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach Register for appointments...Read more -
Art Basel Miami Beach 2021
2 - 4 Dec 2021For Art Basel Miami Beach 2021, Kavi Gupta presents an array of timely and important works by all of the artists represented in our diverse...Read more -
FRIEZE LONDON/ FRIEZE MASTERS
13 - 17 Oct 2021Kavi Gupta is proud to be participating in the 2021 editions of both Frieze London and Frieze Masters. For Frieze London, we will present a...Read more -
The Armory Show 2021
9 - 12 Sep 2021Sharing art in person is truly one of our most cherished experiences. While curating our booth for The Armory Show 2021, we were conscious to...Read more