James Jean

James Jean is a Taiwanese American visual artist, known for both his commercial work and fine art gallery work. He is known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, as well as for his work for Prada, ESPN and Atlantic Records. His work, which has been collected in numerous volumes, has been compared by The New York Times to that of Maxfield Parrish.

Early life

Jean was born in Taiwan and was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey.^[2] He was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, from which he graduated in 2001.^[1][3]

Career

In 2001, Jean became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York. He also worked in advertising,^[4] and has contributed to many national and international publications. His clients included Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Linkin Park, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won six Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".^[5] In 2006, he won Best Artist from the World Fantasy Awards.^[6]

In 2008, Jean retired from illustration and commercial projects in order to focus on painting.^[7][8] In the summer of 2015, Jean was commissioned to paint a large-scale mural for the annual POW! WOW! Hawai`i Art Event at the Honolulu Museum of Art's Luce Pavilion.^[9] In the winter of 2015, Jean was chosen by Apple Inc. to help launch the iPad Pro^[10] and Apple Pencil.^[11] For Chinese New Year of 2016, Jean collaborated with Beats by Dre by creating exclusive art for a limited edition pair of headphones.^[12]

Notable works

Prada advertisement featuring James Jean designs

Prada

In 2007, Jean created a mural for the Prada Epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles.^[13] He also created a backdrop for Prada's Spring/Summer 2008 show in Milan.^[14]

Aspects of the Epicenter mural and the Milan wallpaper were transformed into clothing, handbags, shoes, and packaging. Prada undertook a global campaign that featured Jean's work in advertising environments, animation, and special events.

In 2008, Jean again collaborated with Prada, developing an animated short based on the wallpapers, clothing, and accessories produced in 2007. He wrote, storyboarded, and did the visual development for the animation, which would be eventually titled "Trembled Blossoms", taken from the poem "Ode to Psyche”, by John Keats.

Phillip Lim

In 2010, Jean was commissioned by fashion designer Phillip Lim to paint a series of portraits featuring Los Angeles-based actors, musicians, and tastemakers, including Rachel Bilson, Selma Blair, and Devendra Banhart.^[15]

Critical analysis

Dana Jennings of The New York Times says of Jean's work: "And, as with his Fables work, the paintings and illustrations are often suffused with a dreamy romanticism and lyricism worthy of Maxfield Parrish, even as Mr. Jean subverts those and other isms."^[3]

Published works

Jean currently has seven published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art: Process Recess volumes 1 - 3 (v2 & v3 have both a regular and a special edition), Fables: Covers, XOXO and Kindling:12 Removable Prints. Kindling is an oversized poster book featuring works from Jean's 2009 gallery show of the same name. The Process Recess volumes display Jean's process in his illustrations, by showing both the original sketches and the final coloring, Process Recess is also the name of his blog, which includes similar content. Fables: Covers is a collection of the cover art illustrations James Jean has made for the comic book series Fables. XOXO is a selection of his illustrations displayed in the form of postcards.

• Process Recess (AdHouse Books, 2005) ^[16]
• Process Recess 2: Portfolio (AdHouse Books, 2007)^[17]
• Xoxo: Hugs and Kisses (Chronicle Books, 2008) ^[18]
• Fables: Covers (DC Comics, 2008) ^[19]
• Process Recess 3: The Hallowed Seam (AdHouse Books, 2009) ^[20]
• Kindling: 12 Removable Prints (Chronicle Books, 2009) ^[21]
• Rift (Chronicle Books, 2010) ^[22]
• Rebus (Chronicle Books, 2011) ^[23]
• Memu: 100 Postcards (Chronicle Books, 2014) ^[24]
• Fables: The Complete Covers (DC Comics, 2015) ^[25]
• Xenograph (James Jean, 2015) ^[26]
• Pareidolia (PIE Books, 2015) ^[27]
• Zugzwang (James Jean, 2016) ^[28]

References

External links

• James Jean Website
• James Jean Twitter
• James Jean Fan Page
• James Jean at Martha Otero Gallery
• Huffington Post article on Jean's show at Martha Otero Gallery
• Excerpts of an interviews where James Jean describes the crippling divorce he is being forced to endure, with severe damage to his art