Inferno II 2020

James Jean made Inferno II sometime around now. Looking at it, I feel like I’m peering into a dream, a cotton candy fever dream, all soft pinks and blues swirling together. I can imagine Jean in his studio, layering these colors, building up the forms of these childlike figures and geometric shapes. It’s like he's creating a whole world, one that feels both familiar and totally alien. There’s this incredible fluidity to the lines, almost like they’re breathing, constantly shifting. See the way he uses the blues to define the edges? And the way he lets the pinks bleed into each other? It reminds me a bit of Yoshitomo Nara’s work, in that it captures a certain kind of childlike innocence mixed with a touch of darkness. Artists like Jean, like Nara, they're all in conversation with each other, riffing on each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. And that’s what makes it so exciting.