Too Close to Call (study), by 2022 Whitney Biennial artist James Little, depicts four pattern fields: the two on the opposite ends feature horizontal lines; in the middle left is a stacked series of chevrons; on the middle right is a series of three columns of stacked, slanted lines. Despite the abstract nature of the composition, the title Little gives it, which relates to the fragility of human perceptual ability, offers some hint of the subject matter that was on his mind while painting it. This painting also offers a luminous glimpse into Little's detailed and time consuming process. Little is a methodical master, whose paintings frequently take as long as six months to finish as thick layers of handmade pigments are built up. The intensity and power of Little’s paintings can be credited to his devotion to experimentation with color relationships.

Little 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. 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.

These vibrant studies on paper are the speculative fields where that spirit of intense experimentation plays out. The artist’s distinctive abstract aesthetic language, which is rooted in geometric shapes and patterns, flat surfaces, and emotive color relationships, is evident in these studies. As is his enduring interest in the complementary forces of simplicity and complexity.

“I’m not cutting edge,” Little 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.”