Preview: James Jean solo exhibition Meadowlark

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Meadowlark: James Jean Solo Exhibition

When: July 25 to Sept. 15

Where: CICA Vancouver, 228 Abbott St.

Info: cicavancouver.com

The number of visual artists who have made the leap from the racks of comic book shops to the walls of fine art galleries can be counted on one Infinity Gauntlet. James Jean is one of the few.

The Taiwanese-born, New Jersey-raised Jean first came to public attention through his work on Fables. His covers for the fantasy comic book series, published by DC’s groundbreaking adult imprint Vertigo, brought him industry recognition and numerous awards. He soon expanded into illustration, where his flowing depictions of figures real and imaginary set against surreal backdrops attracted bands like The Donnas and My Chemical Romance and the designer label Prada.

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He went on to create posters for Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. More recent projects include fantastical portraits of the seven members of Korean boy band BTS and a poster for the 2022 movie Everything Everywhere All At Once.

“Hype, BTS’s record label, was opening its museum in Seoul, and I was asked to be the first show at the space, which would feature their artists such as BTS,” Jean said. “So the first show was loosely inspired by BTS and the lore around them that their fans developed over the years. The paintings aren’t literal depictions of the band members so I dropped in a lot of Easter eggs in the paintings.”

Since 2008, Jean has also been painting and exhibiting in galleries, including the Vancouver Art Gallery — his whimsical, eye-popping painting Bouquet was the signature piece of the VAG’s 2016 exhibit Juxtapoz x Superflat.

Meadowlark, his upcoming show at CICA (Centre of International Contemporary Art) Vancouver, is something of a landmark. Not only is it his first show in North America in over a decade, but he has created nine new paintings for the occasion.

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“I didn’t have a preconceived idea for the show,” he said. “But I continue to use a combination of Eastern and Western elements. As I was making it, I was thinking about what it means for me to return to North America with a show. Because I’d done five museum shows in Asia. Somehow, I was not able to have a show in the West, where I live.”

Jean and his family reside in L.A., but they spend two-and-a-half months in Japan so that their nine-year-old son can attend Japanese public school. Jean’s wife is Japanese.

“I was thinking about having this sense of dual cultures, of being American and also Asian. And that leaves me with a dual sense of loss because I don’t feel like I belong in the West. Nor do I feel like I belong in the East because I don’t speak Mandarin very well. And it’s not something I’ve been able to really improve.”

In Mountain, one of the Meadowlark nine, a character “is surrounded by these blocks that almost look like Chinese calligraphy, or symbols. But they’re crumbling and unrecognizable as specific words. That is a metaphorical depiction of what’s happening inside of me where I’m always contending with this crumbling architecture of my inability to speak language. Perhaps that’s why I paint and draw — because it exists in a place beyond language, beyond words. And that’s where I feel most comfortable.”

The show will also include drawings, sculptures, an animated short and some “colour studies, so people can see the process.”

The value inherent in the process of humans making art is one reason he doesn’t fear AI.

“I think that the human aspect is just going to become even more valued and important,” he said. “And because I share my process and people can see time-lapses of me painting, that becomes part of the appreciation of the artwork. Whereas with AI, the process is a mystery. It’s locked in a black box.”