Descendent IV 2021

This is James Jean's "Descendent IV" and it's made with a variety of media including, I think, oil and acrylic. I can imagine Jean starting with fluid washes of pastel hues, letting gravity and chance dictate the initial composition. Then he must have overlaid a series of meticulously rendered motifs, like the dreamy figures and flora. Look at the cartoon glove—it's so clean and crisp, it almost seems collaged onto the surface. It’s like he is combining traditions of figurative painting with a contemporary graphic sensibility, a kind of hallucinatory realism. The title, "Descendent IV," suggests a narrative or a lineage, perhaps an exploration of origins and transformation. It reminds me of other artists, like Dana Schutz or even some of the early Surrealists, who created fantastical worlds populated by hybrid creatures and biomorphic forms. There's something really playful, yet deeply considered about it. I think, in the end, artists are always riffing off each other.