The Modern Surrealist
Los Angeles-based visual artist James Jean’s (1979–Present) art lives in the space between the conscious and the imagined; between what we know and can decipher versus what we sense but cannot name. Jean first became known in the early 2000s for his comic book covers for DC and Vertigo, later transitioning to creating paintings, murals, and installations full-time. Today, James Jean has become one of the most influential visual artists of the 21st century, recognized for his fluid draftsmanship, surreal compositions, and luminous color palettes. Yet, at its core, his work remains deeply psychological. To understand Jean’s significance today, it is valuable to explore the intellectual lineage that underpins his work, particularly Salvador Dalí’s surrealism and Carl Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious.
Spanish artist Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) is noted for his paintings exploring the subconscious mind by juxtaposing and deforming ordinary elements, such as clocks, animals, humans, skulls, and pianos. While at first glance his works may appear unsettling, these distorted figures symbolize decay, desire, mortality, sexuality, religion, mathematical concepts, and reality itself. This technique is intended to portray the irrational depths of the mind and explore the contrast between solidity and fluidity, representing mental states versus physical decay. Jean’s pieces often carry a familiar surrealistic tension: bodies bending into impossible forms, landscapes shifting between physical and emotional space, and objects transforming mid-gesture. While Jean’s style is far softer and more lyrical than Dalí’s stark dreamscapes, the influence is unmistakable. Dalí believed in allowing the unconscious mind to take the lead in creativity, known as his “paranoiac-critical method,” where he self-induced a hallucinatory state. Jean’s process mirrors this embrace of intuitive vision: His paintings feel like dreams mid-formulation, constantly rearranging themselves as though they were pulled directly from the primal corners of thought.
In Jean’s Singer Songwriter II (2024), a boy plays what appears to be an instrument—only it looks more like twisted pink curls and flowing shapes, clearly influenced by Dalí’s habit of turning familiar objects into strange organic forms. Much like Dalí’s piano with human limbs (Surrealist Piano, 1954) or the feline violin (The Violin, 1966), Jean’s impossible instrument suggests that creativity is an intrinsic force. These curls flow into the ground and into the trees, blurring the line between body and environment. Jean expands Dalí’s logic into a softer, more emotional register: Instead of shocking distortion, the transformation feels more natural.
Similarly, in Seasons (2014), Jean arranges intertwined figures, changing plants, and symbolic fauna in a fluid, dreamlike way to depict the circle of life. Winter suggests stillness, spring emerges with creation, summer radiates strength, and fall quietly surrenders to winter. The progression feels cinematic, yet surreal in the Dalí sense: Time becomes a series of psychological states rather than calendar months, further evoked by Jean’s deliberate use of color, merging into a single symbolic continuum.
If Salvador Dalí provides Jean with a surrealist toolkit, Carl Jung gives his work symbolic depth. Jung believed that the human psyche has three layers: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. The ego is simply the center of consciousness and conscious identity. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of forgotten memories, repressed experiences, and latent thoughts, unique to each individual. The collective unconscious, for which Jung is best known, is a deeper, shared layer of the unconscious mind, inherited and containing universal archetypes. This is seen through universal symbols and archetypes that appear across cultures. Jean’s art is saturated with these archetypal motifs: birds, masks, twins, serpents, blooming flowers, protective spirits, and feminine figures merging the humane and the mythological.
In Jean’s Udon II (2017), for example, the curls of noodles become an endless shape swirling around the figures, representing both nourishment and labyrinth. The central figure—the mother, the caregiver—embodies both innocence and power, echoing Jung’s anima archetype: the feminine inner image often found in dreams and mythology. Jean’s characters frequently carry this duality, representing both people and psychological states.
In Pomegranate (2014), Jean uses the fruit as a dense psychological symbol, representing renewal, desire, and life and death: common themes of pomegranates expressed in art. The pomegranate’s seeds are shown bursting or intertwined with the boy, suggesting abundance and the hidden layers of the psyche. Passage (2019) nods to the French Romantic oil painting The Raft of the Medusa (1819) by Théodore Géricault, echoing its sense of peril and collective struggle. The vessel itself is modeled after the traditional reed vessels of Lake Titicaca and draws inspiration from ancient migration. It represents the collective unconscious, carrying the shared myths and histories, described as “an overflow of cultural archetypes.” Ocean travel becomes a metaphor for humanity’s collective, unconscious pull toward exploration, migration, and survival.
What makes James Jean significant today is his revival of surrealism and depth psychology in contemporary visual culture. His works represent a myriad of influences, beyond just Dalí and Jung, as he translates these ideas into a world shaped by digital aesthetics and global mythology. This blend is clearly seen in his compositions: His linework is influenced by East Asian woodblock prints, anime, Baroque painting, and graphic novels. However, beneath all the cultural motifs and pleasant imagery lies heavy symbolism; in a time where audiences are saturated with fast media, Jean’s art stands out for asking viewers to slow down and feel.
This era is obsessed with interiority: mental health, identity, dreams, symbols, and personal meaning. Jean’s work resonates with such audiences because it acknowledges that the modern mind is fragmented, fluid, and endlessly searching for meaning. His figures are often blended with their surroundings, suggesting that the boundary between the external world and the internal experience is thin. Viewers are invited to interpret the imagery through their own feelings and memories, making each piece feel like a psychological mirror. In this way, Jean’s work visualizes how introspection is treated as both a cultural value and a form of self-construction.
Written by Nidhi Suraparaju, Design: Ava Follis