Sarah B. Smith Gallery

Grace Little: ordinary ways

January 2 - February 1, 2026

First Friday Opening reception
January 2, 5:30-7:30pm

Installation + conceptual work

Grace Little is a multimedia artist living and working in Charlottesville, Virginia. Currently, she is a resident artist at McGuffey Art Center and a past resident of the Incubator Program (‘23-‘24). She is a graduate fellow at the Maker Institute of Studio Art & Theology based in Richmond, Virginia. Grace is a graduate of James Madison University, where she received her BFA in Studio Art and was awarded the Painting and Drawing Achievement Award for the Class of 2023. Grace has been in several solo and group shows, publications, and residencies, including OneCollab in Herrnhut, Germany, in May of 2025.

In the artists’ words:

“I have always struggled with writing artists' statements. 

What could I tell you about the art that I am making these days? Upon first glance, it probably seems slightly chaotic; a disjointed union of second-hand linens, oil paint, and prose. This choice of media is crucial in telling an authentic story…you have not been eating only peanut butter sandwiches all your life...have you..? 

You see, I have always loved a good story: Homebodies, hand me downs, booster seats, art school…

Perhaps I was born to be a poet; the one who sees these unexciting, everyday moments into endless rolls of mental film…‘“what are the effects of fresh squished blueberries on a new white skirt?” (and how can I not be sad about it?)”’.

My making now is only an enlargement of intimate memories held close at heart. Those feelings that cannot quite be articulated into words. Stories of both agony and ecstasy are no exception either, as they will soon tell a story of greater beauty than they possess. 

As so I will be, my work is an extension of vulnerability, gentleness, and complexity.

Labor not in vain.”

Grace Little, white flag, cotton thread on found objects