James Little (painter)

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.

James Little
Born1952 (age 70–71)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
EducationMemphis Academy of Art (BFA 1974),
Syracuse University (MFA 1976)
Occupation(s)Painter, curator
Known forGeometric abstraction

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
  • 2021 Chromatic Rhythm - James Little: Paintings on Paper, Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
  • 2020 James Little: Dots and Slants, Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA
  • 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, CA
  • 2015 Color/Barriers: Recent Work, essay by James Harithas, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 2013 Never Say Never, essay by Karen Wilkin, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 2011 Ex Pluribus Unum: New Paintings, essay by Mario Naves, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 2009 De-Classified, Recent Paintings, essay by James Harithas, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 2007 James Little: Untold Stories, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX
  • 2005 Reaching for the Sky, essays by Robert Costas, James Harithas, Al Loving, G. R.;N’Namdi Gallery, New York; catalogue
  • 2003 Beyond Geometry: New Paintings, essay by Robert C. Morgan, L.I.C.K. Ltd. Fine Art, Long Island City, NY
  • 1995 Recent Abstract Paintings, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
  • 1992 James Little: Selected Works from the Past Decade, Lubin House Gallery, Syracuse University, New York
  • 1990 Tondos and Ovals, essay by April Kingsley, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 1989 James Little: Recent Paintings, The Christian Science Church, Boston, MA
  • 1988 James Little & Al Loving: New Work, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 1987 New Paintings, Liz Harris Gallery, Boston, MA
  • 1985 James Little: Format Paintings, Harris Brown Gallery, Boston, MA
  • 1982 Recent Oil Paintings, essay by April Kingsley, Alternative Museum, New York
  • 1976 Paintings by James Little, curated by Ronald Kuchta, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

Group exhibitions
  • 2022 Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It's Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
  • 2021 The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
  • 2019 New York Centric, Art Students League of New York, New York
  • 2019 The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
  • 2018 Color/Line/Form, Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, Florida
  • 2018 The Masters: Teachers and Their Students, Art Students League of New York and Hirschl and Adler Modern, New York
  • 2017 Celebrating 30 Years, Gallery Artists: Drawings and Photographs, June Kelly Gallery, New York
  • 2016–2017 Circa 1970, curated by Lauren Haynes, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

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

  • 2015 Decoding the Abstract Unlimited Potential, curated by James Austin Murray, Lyons WierGallery, New York

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.

  • 2014 Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges, Soft Curves, organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX, catalogue
  • 2012 Today’s Visual Language: Southern Abstraction, A Fresh Look, curated by Donan Klooz, curator

of exhibitions, Mobile Museum of Art, AL; digital catalogue 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 between the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland and the University of Delaware Museums, co-curators Dr. Julie L. McGee and Dr. Adrienne L. Childs, University of Delaware, Mechanical Hall Gallery, Mineralogical Museum, Newark, DE

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

  • 2008 Shape Shifters: New YorkPainters, The A.D. Gallery, University of North Carolina at Pembroke; 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; catalogue Neo-Plastic Redux, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York
  • 2005 Different Ways of Seeing: The Expanding World of Abstraction,

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

  • 2004 Seeds and Roots: Selections from the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

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

  • 2003 Theories: Abstract New York, Roger Ramsay Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 2002 No Greater Love, Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York

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

  • 2001 Painted in New York City: Viewpoints of Recent Developments in Abstract Painting, Hofstra

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

  • 2000 Significant Pursuits: Paint and Geometry, Smack Mellon Studios, Brooklyn, NY

Straight Painting, The Painting Center, New York

  • 1999 Straight No Chaser, The Puffin Room, The Puffin Foundation, New York

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

  • 1998 New Directions ‘98’ 14th Annual National Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, Duchess County Art

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. 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. "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. McGee, Celia (1 January 2011). "Driven to Abstraction". ARTnews. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  4. Sheets, Hilarie M. (March 19, 2020). "Color and Design Matter. So Does Optimism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  5. "James Little by LeRonn P. Brooks". Bomb. April 19, 2017.
  6. "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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