Kindling IV 2021

James Jean made "Kindling IV" around now, and whatever it's made from, it's all about the surface. The marks are drippy, scrubby, but there's also something very clean about it, like the painting is also a print. It's not about hiding the hand, but presenting it in this weird, hyper-clean way. What gets me are the supports for the figure to stand on, these planks. It’s like the ground has turned into a color field. The colors are saturated, really bright, a bit unreal. They remind me of those vibrant inks you see in comics, but here they're put to the service of something…else. They seem on the verge of collapse, and yet are holding the whole composition together. I can't help thinking of Yoshitomo Nara, who also uses those juicy colours but in a more cartoony way, as if it's all a game of push-and-pull, just with different tools and a different end result. It’s like art is one big conversation!