Several of the objects depicted in these drawings are suggestive of balloons, ribbons or wrapped presents, which allude to a celebratory atmosphere and a sense of something concealed and expectant. The depiction of rich drapery, deep colours, intense light, and dark shadows demonstrates a concern for Baroque aesthetics while the positioning of the female figure is inspired by contemporary fashion photography.

Little’s floor-based sculptures allude to the shape and scale of the human figure but their surfaces demonstrate a fascination for print design with their repeated still-life motifs. His use of interlocking, cuboid components shows a disregard for Minimalism’s conceptual tenets in favour of its superficial design qualities.

With their varied and colliding patterns Little’s sculptures reference the visual noise of our media obsessed society. In these passages of meticulously rendered pencil drawing, half recognisable elements disappear beneath one another before the viewer has a chance to reconcile them.

In Facts are stupid things (fruit vs. fashion) (2008), Little’s largest sculpture to date, the extended linear elements and various repeated motifs produce different atmospheres and rhythms. Visual styles of different hierarchies and art historical genres are played against one another with jarring effect. Where the hand painted folds of crimson drapery recall the colours, textures, and mood of Venetian portrait paintings, his simulated exposed brickwork undermines the artifice of illusion and brazenly disrupts the ongoing collision of geometric patterns. Little’s sculptures ultimately function as an expanded form of painting; one in which we come to read the composition at different speeds and times, and in the round.

Graham Little (Born Scotland, 1972) lives and works in London. In 2001, he had a solo exhibition at Camden Arts Centre. Previous group exhibitions include: ‘Girls on Film’, Zwirner and Wirth, Germany (2005); ‘Works on Paper’, Max Hetzler Galerie, Berlin (2004); ‘Collage’, Bloomberg Space, London (2004); ‘Images of Society’, Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2003); ‘Drawing Now: Eight Propositions’, MoMA, New York, curated by Laura Hoptman (2002). Little is currently showing in the group exhibition ‘Wall Rockets: Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha’, curated by Lisa Dennison, at The FLAG Foundation, New York, and will be included in ‘The Associates’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, in March 2009.

Little’s work is in the collections of the British Arts Council, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and MoMA, New York.