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.