Through a series of articles, Colony Little will examine the cultural production of two generations of Black and POC artists working in the southern United States whose familial ties to the region, and relationship to the Great Migration, shape their oeuvres. Looking at the generation of artists who continued to migrate west during the second wave of the Great Migration, between 1940 and 1970, Little’s writing will look at how historical reference is deployed both physically and conceptually by Black artists in order to contextualize the contemporary moment.
Colony Little is a Raleigh–based writer and founder of the blog Culture Shock Art. As a bay area native and a long-term resident of southern California, she covers emerging contemporary art both in California and in North Carolina with a focus on Black women-identified artists. She is a 2016 recipient of the Art Writing Workshop, a program of The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and the International Art Critics Association (AICA-USA). She is currently a contributing writer for Artnet News, Hyperallergic, and Walter Magazine among other publications.