Lady with an Axolotl 2020

James Jean’s painting, Lady with an Axolotl, seems to blossom into being, petal by petal, in the key of pink. It’s a slow unfurling of color and line. I can imagine Jean hunched over this thing, pushing paint around, coaxing it into existence. Look at how the tears on the woman’s face echo the gills of the axolotl she’s holding. I bet he didn’t plan that, but followed his intuition. The woman's gaze, a pale cast on her face, and the floral motifs might remind you of classic portraiture, but there's also something very current about it. I am thinking about the way the strange mix of classical and modern elements in Jean's work reminds us that artists are always in conversation with one another, building upon and responding to what came before. And ultimately, this painting feels like a very personal expression, embracing the ambiguity and uncertainty that makes art so compelling.