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The artist James Jean has become famous in recent years,
Won the Eisner Award, known as the "Oscar of the comic book industry" for 6 consecutive times,
the movie "The Shape of Water" and "Blade Runner 2049",
And then to the poster of this year's hit "Instantaneous Universe"
It's all from him.
The works are collected by Wu Yanzu, Tony Leung, Takashi Murakami, etc.
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From left to right: "Instantaneous Universe" and "The Shape of Water" movie poster (make a slide)
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The artist is concise
November 12,
Concise Chinese mainland First Exhibition "Endless Whirlwind"
Launched at Shanghai Art Museum.
Covering three floors of exhibition halls, nearly 100 works,
It will present his nearly 20 years of creation and thinking.
In addition to illustrations,
His creations also involve painting, sculpture, animation, etc.
Curator Robin Peckham said:
"It shows how ambitious he is."
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View of the "Endless Whirlpool" exhibition
A number of new works appear for the first time,
Recurring "weightless little boy" with
There are many "codes" hidden in the painting,
It will take us into a simple inner world.
Readme: Concise
Written by: Tan Yibai
The title of the exhibition is "Endless Spin", and this feeling will be realized step by step in the process of viewing the exhibition.
To enter the Art Gallery, you need to go up to the fourth floor and then visit it from top to bottom through a spiral staircase.
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Exhibition hall on the fourth floor
The first thing that catches the eye on the fourth floor is the most visually striking work – my latest series of large-scale paintings and sculptures. The three panoramic paintings feel like we're entering a church and watching those very grand myths, but they also have a cinematic effect, as if we are in it.
I've never painted a painting this big before, so it's a particularly big challenge. Among them, the most different may be this "Vortex". Most of the impressions of my work are that the colors are very bright and the colors are bold, but in this work there are only black and gray gradients.
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Vortex, 2018, acrylic on canvas
The painting is more direct and less layered than my smaller scale paintings, but it feels a little more transparent – I wish it had a lighter texture due to its sheer size. I actually put it on the ground and pushed a mop to create these textures that look like water waves. It is like a whirlpool that draws us in.
This chapter is called "Pantheon", and these six sculptures form a sense of space where "the gods return to their places".
I've been making small sculptures since 2011, but it's only after 2018 that I started to focus more on sculpture. Because my paintings are actually full of these characters, I take them out one by one and occupy the physical space, which I think is a natural transition and evolution, activating these characters.
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Derivation, 3 meters, 2022, mirrored stainless steel
Viewers walking around the sculpture may see a story unfold from different angles. For example, "Derivation", many people think that this is the image of my son, and I have also acknowledged this creative inspiration angle. But as you stand in front of him, mirroring yourself, you will have a sense of weightlessness, and as this little boy falls together, perhaps seeing your own story.
So it seems to me that the transition from flat to three-dimensional sculpture, different details will be exposed, providing opportunities to create different stories.
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Exhibition hall on the third floor
The third floor has a strong sense of contrast and will present a more microscopic perspective.
Drawing is the foundation of everything I create, and no matter how hard I try to do now, painting itself is something I haven't stopped. When I was in college in New York, I took the subway, went to the airport, went shopping—wherever I went, I would take my sketchbook with me, and I would always secretly observe the person opposite me and immediately draw on it.
Until now, I still keep this habit. I have densely packed sketchbooks everywhere at home, and even for very large works, I will always use the original sketch as a basis and compare it repeatedly in the process of drawing, because I feel that the most original and vivid vitality remains in the original draft.
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Exhibition hall on the third floor
Walk further and you will enter a color study area. This gallery is like a palette that shows the choice of colors in some of my works. Images of manuscripts are often scanned by me onto a computer to make electronic color studies for the paintings. So in this exhibition, I also want to share these color studies, just as I often share my sketches on social media, and I am happy to show the creative process.
Passing through the microscopic areas of technique and color, you will officially enter a mythical world.
Whether it's ancient Greek mythology and the Bible, German fairy tales and Asian folktales, or the study of West Africa, Tierra del Fuego, or traditional European costumes, I am particularly interested in elements from different cultural backgrounds.
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Cookies, 2022, acrylic on canvas
In this year's latest "Cookie", the cookie in the boy's hand is a mask that resembles that used in traditional Japanese Noh dramas, and when you look closely, you feel that the mask is somewhat similar to the boy's face.
A spirit beast that resembles an Egyptian hairless cat, but resembles the mink in the famous painting "The Woman Holding the Mink", is lying on the boy's lap and looking ahead. They sit together on layers of cushions with an Arabian touch, which together form oriental elements.
The right side of the boy represents the western side: the figure of the maid in a turban pouring milk, inspired by Master Vermeer's "The Maid Who Poured Milk", and the black mist released from under the maid's turban, as if performing some kind of magic, adds a touch of mystery to the world in the picture.
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Derivative V, 2022, acrylic on canvas
This area is home to some recent works. Each image is based on a combination of ancient mythology and my personal imagination, and in the painting, I try to combine Chinese and Western, such as European history paintings and traditional Chinese scrolls, parallel and intertwined.
The new work "Derivative V" is a continuation of the "Derivative" series. The character looks a lot like my son on the surface, but this figure floats in an eternal dream, floating between identity and culture. Little boys, cascading pillars and geometric shapes tumble together in a decaying universe, and viewers can only guess what happened before this catastrophe and can reasonably predict the moment that follows, but in this particular moment, the line between ecstasy and tragedy is extremely blurred.
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The "Threads of History" area on the third floor
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Snowflake, 2022, acrylic on canvas
I also try to create my mythological world. In Snowflake, a female character called "Foragher" trims her hair into a decorative cloak. In previous works, scissors were used to cut edible plants as she searched for food in a psychedelic forest, but in the latest work, her scissors turn to herself, an act of vulnerability and self-reflection. She knelt on the Taihu stone, fragments of her cloak scattered like confetti in the surrounding landscape, revealing an intricate pattern of snowflakes.
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Carrying II, 2021, acrylic on canvas
Carrying II is a metaphor for multiple identities in life, symbolizing the invisible weight that people need to carry when we try to fit into a particular culture or environment.
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Weaving, 2022, acrylic on canvas
The characters in "Weaving" show a gesture of reconciliation. She tries to connect heaven and land, and these threads are woven into the post-apocalyptic world like DNA.
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"Skates", 2021, acrylic on canvas
In Skates and Refreshment Time II, the characters are static, but their gestures hint at the past and the future. Both works feel like they are out of time.
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Above: Gaia, 2019, molten glass, lead, steel and incandescent light bulbs
Next: Gaia manuscript
There is also a glass sculpture on the third floor, which I find the most difficult work in recent times.
It is Gaia, the mother of life, and what she holds in her hands are the two heads of the conjoined turtle, and in the shell of the turtle, is a closed universe that supports this world. Butterflies and bees are the world's pollinators, they can activate life, so that anthropomorphic plants germinate, grow, and become rich.
Not only did my team and I use new techniques that had never been used for stained glass before, but we invented new workflows to create this piece, and it also inspired a more ambitious project – I climbed inside and found that the interior could be more interesting than the outside, so we wanted to create a fully immersive giant stained glass dome that we hope to complete next year.
On the second floor, there is a printmaking area and some small sculptures, five of which debuted in China.
(Insert the product card of "Goumang")
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"Goumang", the first edition in 2019 and the limited sale of the exhibition of the museum in 2022,
Mixed materials, cotton paper, collectible pigment printing
Goumang (Jumang) is a god of wood, spring, and the east in Chinese folk mythology, who is responsible for the germination and growth of trees and faithfully assists the main god Fuxi.
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Childhood is simple
I was born in Taiwan, but spent my childhood with my parents in a small town in Morris County, New Jersey, USA.
New Jersey is a desert of art, and I never thought I'd deal with art. Like many Chinese families, my parents' desire for me was to be a doctor or a lawyer. Until high school, I was "someone else's child", and it was easy to get a high score and go to a prestigious university.
But after I came to New York to study, I realized how big the world of art is. Visiting museums, taking art history classes, flipping through albums, my life was filled. I especially like traditional Chinese scroll paintings, posters from old Shanghai during the Republic of China, and ukiyo-e paintings from Japan, such as Katsushika Hokusai and Yoshinen Tsukioka...
After graduating from university, I started submitting resumes to magazines, publishing houses, and comic book companies, but I was rejected again and again. It wasn't until one day I got a call from DC Comics saying they were looking for someone to draw a cover for a serialized story, that I officially entered the field.
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Above: "Baijuntu", Lang Shining
Bottom: Traveler, 2022, white resin
I have a soft spot for Lang Shining's paintings, and once I turned to his "Hundred Jun Drawings" in my album, because I also loved drawing horses, and I was immediately fascinated. Although Lang Shining's status is not very high in the history of orthodox art, this does not prevent me from appreciating him. He brought some Western painting techniques into Chinese painting, while also retaining the artistic conception and atmosphere of traditional Chinese art. This collision and fusion of Eastern and Western art coincides with me.
I've also wondered countless times, what would happen if I spent a little longer in China and learned a little more about Chinese culture.
In the exhibition, there is a weightless space, and the image of the "Falling Boy" was born in 2019, symbolizing my state as a cultural wanderer, always falling, always traveling.
2019 was also a turning point in my artistic career – further towards the inner world, the Falling Boy seemed to be the embodiment of this era of psychological struggle.
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Concise shot son
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Bouquet II, 2022, acrylic on canvas
In the new work "Bouquet II" in 2022, a pair of invisible hands drag the boy into the giant flowers, and he seems to be dragged by a mysterious force during his fall. I was inspired by 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but with an antique sheen and texture. The direction in which the little boy is going is actually very vague, will he continue to fall, or will he be lifted?
I don't know how Chinese audiences will interpret my work, but maybe I can look for clues in food and animals. I often draw horses and deer, which are very important animals in Chinese culture and represent the unity of Asian culture. There are also many food scenes in the work, such as a bowl of hot noodles, a family pickling pickles, etc., which are related to my personal experience.
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Top, middle: Jian Ming has been friends with Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh for many years
Bottom: Yoshitomo Nara
I went to Japan during the summer and met a lot of old friends and new ones. Even visited Yoshitomo Nara in Hokkaido, and we talked a lot in his cabin, it was an incredible experience.
For this solo exhibition in Shanghai, I regret that I was not able to show up, plus I was infected with the new crown not long ago, and I am still recovering, and I missed many opportunities to communicate with Chinese audiences.
But I would describe this new experience in three words: historic, unified, and dizzying. I am very proud to exhibit my work in China, and I hope that my work will build a bridge between different cultures because my roots are in China, but my views are deeply influenced by the West. My work pulls me in many different directions, but I like to keep spinning around and moving me to unexpected areas.
In this endless rotation, there is no clear beginning and end, falling or rising, it is up to each person to decide.
"This article is the original of "one article", and it shall not be deleted, modified, or misappropriated to any platform without permission, otherwise legal responsibility will be pursued. ”