Artist Page
James Jean
|
James Jean is a Taiwanese-American artist, who graduated from the New York School of Visual Art in 2001, and now works and lives in Los Angeles. He has an incredibly fleshed out professional career and portfolio, spanning from comics, to albums, to movie posters. |
|
Early in his career he became a cover artist for both DC and Marvel comics where he worked as a cover artist, colourist, inker, and penciller.
|
|
A list of Jean's varied clientele includes: Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Linkin Park, Playboy, Knopf, and Prada among many others.
In 2007, Jean was hired by Prada to produce a mural for their stores in New York City, as well as backdrop for their 2008 Milan fashion show.
Has also worked closely with musicians such as My Chemical Romance for their album, The Black Parade, and Linkin Park for their album The Hunting Party.
|
|
He has also branched out into poster art, working closely with the film runners and creating illustrations for the movies; The Shape of Water (charcoal), Mother! (hand painted), and Blade Runner 2049 (digital).
|
|
A lot of Jean's illustrations are made with graphite and then refined digitally, but he always had an interest in working with acrylic and oil on uncommon surfaces such canvases, wood and linen. In 2008 he retired from illustration to focus full time on his paintings, though they kept a similar illustrative feel to them all, each telling a narrative through a single image. James Jean's art often draws upon inspiration ranging from baroque painting traditions to Japanese wood block prints and Chinese silk scroll paintings.
|
|
Own style influence
|
|
|
|
Sketchbook work
Adrift
2015 work.
Mixed media on 4 canvases
180"x88
Adrift is a grand piece of art. The style of dress of the girl and the references to Japanese woodblock printing techniques in the piece implies an Asian mythology- the water similar to that of The Great Wave. While normally the colour red implies danger, in this piece it seems instead to be a point of safety and refuge - a warm sky and a single branch within the raging storm of blues and greens below. It also works as a draw point for the viewer, as the warm and cool cones contract heavily in this piece.
"Combining abstract figuration with loose, gestural marks, Jean creates layered compositions that evoke personal or collective experiences. Dream-like and at times disorienting, his works are expressive of narratives unbounded in time or space, and draw upon art."
"Combining abstract figuration with loose, gestural marks, Jean creates layered compositions that evoke personal or collective experiences. Dream-like and at times disorienting, his works are expressive of narratives unbounded in time or space, and draw upon art."
