Surreal, uncanny, seductive: step into Graham Little’s world

In Graham Little’s uncanny world – at the moment on present at The FLAG Artwork Basis in New York – actuality is sort of imperceptibly skewed and figures, presiding over tea tables or posing for portraits, are nearly acquainted. The Scottish artist riffs on the wealthy worlds that populated late Twentieth-century promoting and Nineteen Sixties trend pictures for his impeccably designed rooms, during which gorgeously clothed folks self-consciously reside.

‘It has all the time felt necessary for me to take heed to the imagined needs and emotions of the fashions and stylists of the supply materials,’ says Little on the intertwining of cultural references all through his work. ‘I desire to assist them construct these worlds and expressions as an alternative of my very own. Sublimation of my fears and my considerations for the way everybody manages and copes in life.’

Graham Little at The FLAG Artwork Basis, New York

Intimately sized, Little’s gouache and coloured-pencil works on paper command the viewer to return nearer as in the event that they’re peering by means of the keyhole, casting us within the function of intruder. The figures within the works suppose so too – caught holding stiff poses, they keep away from our gaze. 

The exhibition at FLAG Artwork Basis unites 16 works created between 2000 and 2023, within the LIttle’s first retrospective within the US. ‘The sooner works have been direct and therapeutic in that they allowed me to momentarily disconnect from masculinity,’ says Little. ‘After some time I’ve given permission for a few of my very own subjectivity and cause to form the picture. The eras of trend pictures that impressed me have been of a time of higher reference to our personal ideas and group; earlier than the invention of the hand held hoover for the soul, a time earlier than we bought off our considering area. I do not suppose we have to purchase as many shiny surfaces, and it’s nonetheless doable to make use of a text-and-talk telephone or go for a slower stroll with no objective; assist fund a public library.’

This slower philosophy is encapsulated within the melancholic works casting historic trend pictures in muted tunes, presenting a posh rethinking of each femininity and domesticity. ‘I’m nonetheless making an attempt to handle a misunderstanding of femininity,’ says Little. ‘I’m unsure.’

Graham Little is on the FLAG Artwork Basis, New York, till 4 Might 2024