Petzel is pleased to present Homage El Shabazz, James Little’s third exhibition with the gallery, which brings together a rarely seen body of work from a pivotal moment in Little’s practice. The exhibition comprises six intimately scaled paintings from Little’s Homage El Shabazz series made between 1985 and 1989. This show marks the largest presentation of the series since 1992, when six of these works were included in the Walker Art Center’s Malcom X: Man, Ideal, Icon exhibition curated by Dr. Kellie Jones. Coinciding with Homage El Shabazz, the first extensive monograph on Little’s five-decade career will be published this fall, featuring essays by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Aruna D’Souza, Gavin Delahunty, and Carrie Cooperider. Petzel will host a public launch and signing for the book at their 25th Street location on November 14, with Little in conversation with Aruna D’Souza.
In his Homage El Shabazz paintings, Little applies hand-mixed oil and wax to canvas, producing subtly shifting fields of color that lend a human touch to the structured, hard-edge compositions.