Kavi Gupta Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Viewing Room
  • Editions
  • Events
  • Public Works
  • Information
  • Mission
Menu

James Little in the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Current and Forthcoming exhibition
1 April - 5 September 2022
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
  • Video
  • Press
  • Events
Overview
Congratulations James Little, Selected Artist, 2022 Whitney Biennial
Congratulations James Little, Selected Artist, 2022 Whitney Biennial

Critical praise for artist James Little in the 2022 Whitney Biennial:

"Magisterial."

—NEW YORK TIMES

 

"COMPELLING."

—VOGUE

 

"STUNNING."

—ARTnews

 

"the single best work in the whitney biennial."

— New York SUN

Artist James Little - Kavi Gupta - Whitney Biennial

(Artist James Little with three of his five paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Image courtesy James Little and Kavi Gupta.)

 

2022 Whitney Biennial artist James Little (b. 1952) 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.

 

Little has been an enduring and influential force in the field of abstraction for decades. Included in such pivotal early exhibitions as Another Generation: Contemporary Abstractionists at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1979, and Afro-American Abstraction at MoMA PS1 in 1980, Little has consistently re-defined the meaning and importance of abstract painting in the Postmodern age. His distinctive aesthetic language is rooted in geometric shapes and patterns, flat surfaces, and emotive color relationships. 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.

 

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 PS1, New York, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO; and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. Recently, Little's work has been thrilling audiences in such groundbreaking exhibitions asDirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, and The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection at the Saint Louis Museum, Saint Louis, MO. In November of 2022, he will open an ambitious solo exhibition of new large-scale paintings at Kavi Gupta in Chicago.

 

His paintings are represented in the collections of numerous public and private collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; DeMenil Collection in Houston, Texas; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Maatschappij Arti Et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Holland; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse NY; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR; and Newark Museum, Newark, NJ.

 

Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (April 6–September 5, 2022) is co-organized by David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Initiatives, and Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Gabriel Almeida Baroja, Curatorial Project Assistant, and Margaret Kross, former Senior Curatorial Assistant.

 

Whitney Biennial 2022 Member Preview Days

 

Thursday, March 31
10:30 am–6 pm

 

Friday, April 1
10:30 am–10 pm

 

Saturday, April 2
10:30 am–6 pm

 

Sunday, April 3

10:30 am–6 pm 

 

Monday, April 4
10:30 am–6 pm

  • The Whitney Biennial
  • James Little's Artist Page
Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Installation Views
  • James Little's paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Photo by Ramsey Hoey. Image courtesy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.

    James Little's paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Photo by Ramsey Hoey. Image courtesy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.

  • James Little's paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Image courtesy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.

    James Little's paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Image courtesy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.

  • James Little with members of the Kavi Gupta team in front of Little's painting Private Storms (2021) at the VIP opening of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. (Photo coutresy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.)

    James Little with members of the Kavi Gupta team in front of Little's painting Private Storms (2021) at the VIP opening of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. (Photo coutresy of James Little and Kavi Gupta.)

  • Installation view of James Little's painting Borrowed Times (2021) in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. (Photo by Ben Davis.)

    Installation view of James Little's painting Borrowed Times (2021) in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. (Photo by Ben Davis.)

Video
Press
  • James Little

    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, Borrowed Times, 2021. Oil on linen. 162.6 x 188 cm

    James Little: The 2022 Whitney Biennial Expands the Scope of 'American' Art

    Vivian Chiu, Ocula, April 27, 2022
  • James Little, Big Shot, 2021. Oil and wax on linen, 72 x 72 in.

    James Little: The Single Best Work in the Whitney Biennial

    Dana Gordon, New York Sun, April 18, 2022
  • James Little, Borrowed Times, 2021, Oil on linen, 162.6 x 188 cm.

    James Little: Whitney Biennial 2022: Artist Installations That Stole the Show

    Simon Fisher, Eva Fuchs, Rory Mitchell , Ocula, April 8, 2022
  • James Little, Exceptional Blacks, 2021. Oil and wax on linen, 72 x 72 in.

    James Little: A Glimpse into This Year's Whitney Biennial

    Marley Marius, Vogue, April 2, 2022
  • James Little - Kavi Gupta - Whitney Biennial

    James Little: At the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Compelling Works

    Ayanna Dozier, Artsy, March 31, 2022
  • James Little artist, represented by Kavi Gupta, 2022 Whitney Biennial

    James Little: A Whitney Biennial of Shadow and Light

    Holland Cotter, New York Times, March 31, 2022
  • James Little, Kavi Gupta, Whitney Biennial

    James Little: A Sharp, Understated Whitney Biennial Looks to the Past to Process the Grief of the Present

    Alex Greenberger , ARTNews, March 30, 2022
  • Installation view of James Little with three of his paintings in the 2022 Whitney Biennial: from left, Stars and Stripes, Big Shot, and Exceptional Blacks. Image courtesy James Little, Kavi Gupta, Whitney Biennial.

    James Little: 12 Standouts at the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Where Poetic Reflections on Past Two Years Shine Brightly

    Maximilíano Durón, ARTNews, March 29, 2022
Events
  • Celebrating James Little at the Whitney Biennial

    Celebrating James Little at the Whitney Biennial

    30 Mar 2022
    Read more

Related artist

  • James Little

    James Little

Back to exhibitions

Contact: +1 312 432 0708

General Inquiries: info@kavigupta.com

Media Inquiries: media@kavigupta.com

Client & Sales Inquiries: client@kavigupta.com

Publications: Kavi Gupta Editions

Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–5 pm, Sat: 11 am–5 pm

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Thurs-Fri: 11am-5pm, Sat: 12pm-5pm 

215 E. Buffalo St. #219 New Buffalo, MI 49117

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Ocula, opens in a new tab.
Manage cookies
2021 Kavi Gupta
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences