James Jean

[10][11] Combining abstract figuration with loose, gestural marks, Jean creates layered compositions that evoke personal or collective experiences.

In favor of the freedom found in sketching during his childhood, Jean embraced sketchbooks as a means of exploring figures and imaginative creatures, synthesizing doodles, line drawings, and journalistic elements with more polished compositions in black-and-white and color.

[citation needed] 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.

"[19] Prada brought the collection to Shanghai as part of the brand's unveiling of Rong Zhai, a 20th-century mansion it restored, and exclusive looks were debuted in vivid reds, yellows, and blues.

Jean's collaboration with Prada brought images inspired by graphic novels to high-fashion pieces, blending the superhuman with the human, and with a nod to the thick black lines that divide illustration panels.

[20] Jean created the poster art for three films in 2017: Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049.

[27] For "Azimuth," a 2018 solo exhibition at Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Tokyo, Jean presented drawings, paintings, and an installation of illuminated stained glass works, which he made at Judson Studios.

The show centered on the radiance of color and light, with works driven by a force of optimism and innocence, informed in part by the joy of the artist's son.

Collaborating again with Judson Studios, the oldest family-operated stained-glass maker in the US,[29] Jean created Gaia - Yellow Earth Center (2019), the centerpiece of the Lotte Museum of Art exhibition.

Over eight feet in height, the illuminated sculpture, which combines water jet cutting, hand and airbrush painting, and fused glass, depicts the goddess Gaia with a slinking tiger in an all-over composition of natural and geometric elements.