At the June Kelly Gallery,
the July spotlight is on the oil and wax canvases of James Little.
Now Is The Right Time
To Do The Right Thing, paralleled bands of exuberant color
presenting as narrow vertical hardedge formal elements flanking
geometric chevron patterns that shift into diagonal constructs
receding and forging forward, effecting illusion of speed and space.
A resonance, a syncopation crosses the canvas through diverse
geometric configurations in curious but harmonious combinations of
brilliant color.
Large abstract paintings
defined by expressive, subdued but indisputable physicality which
Little achieves by the mixing of his own colors from pure pigment
and heated beeswax, then applies, in multiple, often, as many as
ten, layers of each color, onto the canvas.
Little, ever, the
meticulous craftsman, ever consistent in his single-mindedness with
structure, form and color, when creating independent canvas painting
as Now Is The Right Time To Do The Right Thing or a major commission
of multi-colored geometric pattern in gargantuan dimensions.
Little’s commission for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)’s
new Brooklyn-bound platform at Jamaica Station was installed in May
2020. The platform serves those traveling between Jamaica, Queens,
and Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Little lives and works in
New York City. He holds a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art and an
MFA degree from Syracuse University. Little has participated in
numerous one-person and group exhibitions throughout the United
States and Europe. His paintings are represented in museums,
corporate and private collections, including the Newark Museum and
the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; the Studio Museum in Harlem,
New York; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Tennessee State
Museum, Nashville; the DeMenil Collection, Houston, TX; Arkansas
Arts Center, Little Rock; Library of Congress, Washington, DC;
Maatschappij Arti Et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Holland and Arts in
Embassies Program, N’Djamena Collection, Chad, Central Africa.
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