James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist who was born in Taiwan and raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. Educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he graduated in 2001, but later moved back to Asia after a lengthy divorce. After graduating in 2001, Jean became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering a whopping seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York – a feat not easily accomplished by any artist. Although jean’s illustration work for DC Comics propelled him into the spotlight, he is actually better known for both his commercial work and fine art gallery work. In 2007, Jean created a mural for the Prada Epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles and he also created a backdrop for Prada’s Spring/Summer 2008 show in Milan. In 2008, Jean again collaborated with Prada, developing an animated short film that was based on the wallpapers, clothing, and accessories produced in 2007 by Prada. 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. If that wasn’t enough he went on to work with fashion designer Phillip Lim to paint a series of portraits featuring Los Angeles-based actors, musicians, and tastemakers, including Rachel Bilson, Selma Blair, and Devendra Banhart. Besides Prada, Jean also did works for ESPN and Atlantic Records. Published in numerous magazines and editorials and known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, there is no shortage of documented reasons why James Jean is one of the greatest illustrators of our time. If you happen to stumble upon this amazing artists new work, then consider yourself extremely lucky because in 2008, Jean retired from illustration and commercial projects in order to focus on painting.
