Willie Little

Russo Lee Gallery is pleased to present In My Own Little Chair by Willie Little. This new body of work is a series of multimedia oil paintings and sculptural structures inspired by Little’s early years growing up in a lime-green, asbestos-shingled shotgun shack in Pactolus Township, North Carolina. The exhibition is yet another love letter to the artist’s past, and an extension of his 2022 installation titled My Own Little Corner. Drawing from childhood memories, rural textures, and a formative moment watching the 1965 TV version of Roger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, the work reflects a merging of youthful wonder and adult reflection. Little’s use of found objects—rusted metal, weathered materials, and repurposed vintage items—embodies a “rural aesthetic” shaped by resilience. Little states, “I reminisce on my immeasurable values that came out of the richness of growing up poor.” This exhibition marks a powerful evolution in Little’s practice, transforming intimate recollections of hardship and imagination into layered expressions of identity and place.

Willie Little is a Black multimedia artist. He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His solo exhibitions include the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, NC; the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO; and the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, AL. Little is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 and 2010 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, the 2022 Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights Grant, the 2021 Glean Portland Residency, the 2020 Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Black Lives Matter Artist Grant, and the 2019 Regional Arts & Cultural Council Project Grant. His works are in notable private and public collections including the Tweed Museum of Art at University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD); the Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.

In My Own Little Chair

November 6 – 29, 2025

Press Release