Graham Little’s otherworldly paintings are increasingly hard to define. Originally concerned with representing beauty – in the past, Little has considered it through the lens of fashion photography – the Dundee-born artist has now turned his gaze sideways, considering the context, rather than the subject.
Before making the works, Little assembles the various elements for his paintings in his studio, using an assortment of materials, from paper to objects found on the streets near his home, and his friends, who pose as models. It is a process of deconstruction that’s reflected in the works themselves, which pick out paraphernalia scattered around the sidelines of a life, and bring it into sharp relief, as the figure recedes into the background.
‘I find it humbling and grace-filled that we can make a lot of overcomplicated and destructive decisions as a society, and yet, every year new flowers and fruit still appear,’ says Little. ‘And they bring hope, and don’t judge or mention any unwanted advice. It gives the sense to me that there is some care outside of the structures that we build.’
Little is an astute observer of these nuances, a skill honed during his childhood in Scotland, which shaped the way he experienced images. ‘Scotland was a good place to grow up – it was a fantastic community,’ says Little. ‘There wasn’t much contemporary art but I would go to the galleries in Edinburgh and not eat or drink all day – just stare at the art. I always felt a pull to make things. If my friends were indoors, I’d sit with them for ten minutes, then head home to finish a drawing.’
Little’s paintings are magical in their elevation of the everyday. The artist celebrates the cracks, the blemishes and the mundane. He builds on the fashion photography that has always interested him by widening his definition of beauty, and celebrating its rougher edges. ‘In childhood, I wanted to understand what I saw in the editorials and adverts and to immerse myself in that,’ Little adds. ‘Those images still inform the work now, but I am constructing my own versions and also communicating my own understandings and unconscious networks. I still feel much conflict with beauty and am not sure if it’s present, a mirage, projection or a hope.’
Graham Little at Alison Jacques, London, until 14 November 2026