San Antonio-based artist, Ken Little, claims artistic influences that range from “primitive” aboriginal cultures to Thelonious Monk; from Marcel Duchamp to Hank Williams. Little’s sculpture has evolved and grown over the years, expressed through a variety of forms and materials, yet there is a fluidity to his artwork that persists, despite his diverse modes of communicating his concepts.

Just as his “shoe” sculptures of rabbits and other wildlife are three-dimensional outlines of what they represent, his more recent works – large steel casts covered with dollar bills – are abstracted to capture the physical and political essence of an image.  

The exhibition featured some of Little’s monumental steel casts, ranging from body-parts to articles of clothing, pasted over with real dollar bills. He is also the creator of a minimalist menagerie of fetish-like cast-iron masks, some of which were featured in this playful and exciting exhibition at Untitled [ArtSpace], Little Changes. His work is not only impressive, but also thought provoking and humorous.

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Upon viewing Ken Little’s sculpture, the first thing one notices is the way his work dominates the space it inhabits. Whether it is the sheer size of his steel casts, the neon he is fond of using in his installations, or the striking imagery he creates, Little’s work demands attention.

Also evident in his art is his quirky sense of humor – notably, in the names he gives his pieces, like Bird: a large steel cast of a lone middle finger covered in dollar bills. But for all of the flash and flippancy in his work, there is much of meaning and substance. Since 1988, when Ken Little started using dollar bills in his art, his large steel sculptures have represented a shift for the artist. According to Little, “The dollar bill pieces are more stylized in terms of form  - more conceptual and less visceral. But like my other pieces, they are still concerned with the outside surfaces, not the insides – not the guts.”

And yet, despite the fact that Little’s casts are technically hollow, they are not empty of meaning. The vacant eyes on his piece Father represent perfectly the idea of a political figurehead, like JFK or Reagan, as reflected by the media and through the symbolic language of western culture. “One of my pieces, Miss, is basically a 1950’s swimsuit made of dollar bills, two objects that are common separately, but which combine with a fluid simplicity that punctures ‘high art’ ideals.”         

A survey of his complete oeuvre reveals a fascination with the idea that abstraction can result in a final image that is no less interesting or complete than it would be if were riddled with realism. According to Ken Little, a lot of his take on abstraction has to do with the music of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk and his ability, through improvisation, to “invoke something fluid.” It is apparent even in his most abstracted images that, for Little, abstraction does not mean the absence of detail. As with a good jazz solo, his art demonstrates a consciousness of the fact that a well-timed rest can be as effective as an elaborate flourish.

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Untitled [ArtSpace]
1 NE 3rd, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

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