|
|
|
B est Of NY
The Best Art Galleries & Exhibits in NYC This Weekend, June 17-19By Alyson SchwartzJune 16, 2011 Ex Pluribus Unum by James Little
(credit: June Kelly Gallery) June Kelly Gallery
166 Mercer Street
212.226.1660
junekellygallery.com
Reviews & More Info Make sure to catch this fabulous exploration of color by James Little this weekend before the exhibit closes on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal Saturday/Sunday, June 11-12, 2011 By Lance Esplund James Little: Ex Pluribus Unum
June Kelly Gallery
166 Mercer St., (212) 226-1660
Through June 21 To stand in James Little's show of large, horizontal, multicolored abstract paintings is to be hit with various associations. These include the frontal regal processions in Byzantine mosaics; a candy store display; and light drifting across either striped wallpaper or the rippling surface of a lake. At times Mr. Little's colored vertical stripes appear to expand and contract, creating an optical illusion suggesting wind in the grasses or the vibration of harp strings. Mr. Little (b. 1954) works in encaustic. He builds his flat, hard-edged stripes and elongated triangles through the application of numerous translucent layers, culminating in bold patterns of astringent colors that seem to advance toward the viewer, but which at the same time feel milk-softened, held at a filtered distance. The exhibition's title, "Ex Pluribus Unum" (meaning "one from many"), suggests not only a system but also the exponential force of repetition. An aftereffect of uniformity lingers. But Mr. Little's color is finely tuned. In "If Only…" (2010), the best work here, diagonals and verticals, oranges and blue-grays transcend pattern, coalescing into an organic whole. The painting's unexpected appearance of a row of diamond shapes surprises like an early spring. May 19, 2011 The Lookout: A Weekly Guide to Shows You Won't Want to Miss By Leigh Anne Miller With an ever-growing number of galleries scattered around New York, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Where to begin? Here at A.i.A., we are always on the hunt for clever,memorable shows that stand out in a crowded field. Every Thursday, we'll post the 10 shows our team of editors can't stop talking about. James Little at June Kelly, through June 21 The large-scale, hard-edge abstractions by this under-recognized African American painter resonate with a political theme of social unity defined by images of national flags. Also in play are eye-popping allusions to African textiles explored via Little's take on Color Field painting. James Little, The Legacy of Thieves and Pundits,2009, oil and wax on canvas, 72.5 x 94 inches.
"Some abstract artists — Mondrian is one — make entire paintings from countless small
precise strokes, brushwork so detailed but so undemonstrative that you sense it rather than see it. If his compositions of plain blocks and bars feel vivacious, that’s why.
James Little does something similar with color. His new paintings are almost entirely of patterns of crisp vertical stripes and rays made vibrant by gradations of colors. Mondrian stuck to a palette of red, yellow, blue, black and white. Mr. Little seems to explore every possible variation of these. Pink soaks into lavender; electric orange slices into electric blue; cinnabar floats over gray; dark blue stains into light blue, light blue into peacock-blue-green. Each stripe becomes a self-defined spectrum, each painting a rainbow.
Such results could be just pretty; the work’s titles — “Satchmo’s Answer to Truman,” “The Marriage of Western Civilization and the Jungle” — seem designed to make sure we don’t see them that way. And we don’t. What we see, or feel, is an eye choosing, mixing and gradating color the way Mondrian applied paint: as if concentration were a form of expression, which it is"
HOLLAND COTTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 5, 2009 "Little's paintings are not about specific, tasty hues (as with Davis and Kenneth Noland) but about how colors--ordinary, generic colors--interrelate to articulate space." Nathan Kernan, Art in America, Oct 2005,
"James Little’s paintings have soul, that is, the power to ignite the spirit. Like the best Jazz, they express powerfully distilled emotions. James Little’s paintings are original, sophisticated, and profound. They are expressionist and ceremonial in essence. They are quite distinct from earlier approaches to non-objective and hard edge painting. Little’s paintings use geometry and color in a way that reaches beyond their historical sources in Modern Art and go on to express a social and spiritual dynamic that is new to American art.
Little has immersed himself in the same tradition of painting and enriched it and expanded it with a personal vision rooted in his African American and American Indian heritage. James Little received his BFA at the Memphis College of Art and his MFA at Syracuse University in 1976. He has exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe."-James Harithas: The Station Museum | |
|
|