James Jean NFT released in Outland, can it continue Fang Lijun's glory?

"The famous international painting artist James Jean's NFT-Fragments will be released on the art NFT distribution platform Outland. Outland's first release of Fang Lijun's NFT is currently at a floor price of 6.92E on Opensea. Can James Jean continue Fang Lijun's glory?"

01. Who is James Jean?

James Jean was born in Taiwan, China, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2001. After graduation, he worked for the famous DC Comics Company【1】. Soon became a well-known illustrator, James Jean won 5 consecutive national comic book cover design awards "Eisner awards", 3 Harvey awards, and won 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal, he has also provided drawings for many international publications and has collaborated with well-known magazines and TV media such as "Time", "New York Times", "Rolling Stone", ESPN, etc.

[1] DC Comics (Detective Comics) and Marvel Comics (Marvel Comics) are also known as the two major comic giants in the United States. DC owns Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg, Shazam, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Firestorm, Atom, Black Thunder, Blue Beetle, Dr. Fate , Constantine, Zatanna and other superhero teams, and superhero teams such as Justice League, Green Lantern Corps, Justice Society of America, Teen Titans, Justice League Dark, Suicide Squad, and Legion of Super Heroes.

James Jean's works are full of weird and gorgeous fusion. The characters in James Jean's works have somewhat innocent faces, but at the same time they are also integrated into the dark and treacherous picture style. James Jean's work feels like a beautiful nightmare, full of magical and mysterious imagination. In many paintings, it can also be seen that he uses a lot of elements of new art, such as: twisted and flowing curves, meticulous meticulous brushwork flowers and plants.

His paintings are always very prosperous, and the charm of ink painting can always be revealed in the middle - maybe it has something to do with James Jean being a Taiwanese. Hummingbirds, bustling flowers, women with clear water, lazy and sexy women, and children are often seen in his designs. The tangled but not disturbed lines are breathtakingly beautiful. Whether it is a big scene or a small romance, James Jean can handle it with ease.

James Jean's clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, PLAYBOY, Knopf, PRADA, and more. Among them, the Fairy Bag designed by James Jean for PRADA in the spring and summer of 2008 has become popular in the star circle.

In 2008, he began to slowly fade out from the fields of business and illustration, and shifted his focus to painting creation. Beginning during this period, James Jean began to have a distinct style.

James Jean's works are full of gorgeous fantasy and weird fusion. He breaks away from the creation of commercial illustrations and is full of abstract pop colors. In many paintings, it can also be seen that he uses a lot of new art elements, twisting and flowing curves, and meticulous meticulous brushwork.

James Jean began to open solo exhibitions with paintings. Illustrations have become famous in business, and the influence of painting solo exhibitions in the art world is naturally not small. Later, around 2015, the paintings were appreciated by the famous Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, and he joined Takashi Murakami's studio. Down.

In recent years, James Jean's paintings have formed a unique creative style, combining various new elements, abstract and full-color paintings to create surreal romantic and lyrical artistic creations. In 2017, James Jean drew the official posters for the films "The Shape of Water", "Blade Runner 2049" and "Mother".

Undoubtedly, high quality and high output are also important reasons for James' commercial success. Today, with the development of digital painting technology, James still insists on creating in the form of hand-painting and engraving, which shows his emphasis on and love for painting art.

02. James Jean debuts NFT Fragments in Outland

Fragments is a collection of 7,000 NFTs created by James Jean commissioned by Outland and powered by Zora. The series was entirely hand-drawn by James Jean, presenting a series of fantastical characters distilled from the artist's imagination.

Described by Jean as "mythical characters", each character has a unique character on a pentagonal frame in his signature psychedelic palette. Fragments present visual elements that have emerged throughout Jean's career, including his interest in European, Chinese and Japanese Old Master painting traditions, thus providing a retrospective exploration of his artistic practice.

James Jean is known for his pictorial aesthetics, from expressionism to precise rendering, and incorporating techniques from art historical traditions, including baroque painting, Japanese woodblock prints, and Chinese silk scroll paintings. Jean has had solo exhibitions at Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo (2018); and Lotte Museum of Art, Seoul (2019); among others. Jean has also collaborated with Prada, BTS and film directors Darren Aronofsky and Guillermo del Toro.

Fragments of James Jean will be available in Outland. Among them, the Salvador Mundi special edition NFT has been auctioned on Opensea. The auction will end at 22:56 on April 25th, and the current bidding price is 81.26ETH ($230,492.50).

03. What is the background of the publisher Outland?

1. Introduction to the platform

Outland aims to put forward insightful views on the future art world. The new art platform Outland is committed to creating possibilities for critical and pioneering exchanges in the emerging digital technology field and the contemporary art world.

As the first NFT platform in the world that is founded by core managers of important art institutions, art galleries and galleries, Outland hopes to establish a circle composed of important voices in the field of digital art creation, criticism and collection. Professionals are injecting vision and rich and unique industry experience into the young blood of Outland. Provide technical and strategic support and guidance for traditional artists, take the artist's creation as the starting point, and build a platform for in-depth display and understanding of works through videos, articles, etc. A new path to the market, Outland's network is constantly growing and expanding.

Unlike other trading-based marketplaces (marketplaces), Outland, an encrypted art platform established in November 2021, did not choose to start NFT transactions by reading on-chain data at the beginning of its launch, but chose to use art content His writing and criticism intervened. Contents such as Criticism, Collections, Conversations, News and Commentary set up on Outland’s official website try to understand the importance of art from the artist’s resume, creative background and creation. Discuss and explore cultural and social significance. The attempt and formation of Outland is an olive branch thrown to both sides at the practical level by practitioners in the two fields of blockchain and contemporary art. Behind the unique project structure, choosing to open the trading market with Fang Lijun's works marks the height of the platform's starting point, which has something to do with the identities and backgrounds of the two founders.

2. Member background

Jason Li

As the CEO of the Outland platform, Mr. Jason Li graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in business administration. His cross-cultural and industry working experience has allowed him to accumulate profound experience in social media business operations, international communication and strategic layout. As a senior collector of contemporary art and NFT, he is also a member of the artist council of the Whitney Museum of American Art. He explores the path of cultural exchanges through different platforms and channels, and promotes the development of contemporary art , giving support to artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds.

Xue Mei

Ms. Xue Mei, Art Director of Outland Asia, has more than 15 years of experience in the contemporary art industry. She used to be the CEO of UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. With her outstanding leadership, she led the team to realize the independent operation of UCCA and make UCCA develop into a Chinese contemporary art institution with international influence. During her tenure as Director of Education and Institutions and General Manager of the K11 Art Foundation, Xue Mei completed the preparation of the K11 Art Museum North District team, and cooperated with international institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts in London to complete the artist residency program.

With respect for works of art and artists, the two founders who have been working and collecting in the art field for a long time regard Crypto as a spiritual belief, avoiding the market guidance of FOMO (fear of missing out) in an efficient financial narrative, and meaningful Art is just beginning to show its charm and energy. If it is said that the method of mechanical reproduction will inevitably make the aura in the work disappear, but the blockchain will re-endow it with technical means. Such an organic combination also allows a new in-depth narrative to unfold.

3. Project experience

Previously, outland and Fang Lijun released the Elemental (gold, wood, water, fire, earth) NFT series. On February 22, 2022, Fang Lijun released the NFT work Elemental (Chinese name "金木") on the emerging encrypted art platform Outland (www.outland.art) Water Fire Earth"). The work consists of 2022 pieces of digital pottery NFT blind boxes, including 200 static pictures, a total of 10 versions, and 22 single-version animations. It condenses the artist's thinking on the relationship between the material and the virtual world.

In this regard, Mr. Jason Li and Ms. Xue Mei, the founders of the Outland platform, said: "When the Outland platform met with you for the first time, we are honored to invite Mr. Fang Lijun to join. As one of the most important contemporary artists today, Fang Lijun The creation of the teacher is a milestone in the history of contemporary art in China and the world. The exploration of Mr. Fang Lijun in the field of NFT this time also demonstrates his vitality and thinking as a mature artist in his creation. This continuous exploration and practice of the possibilities of the unknown world coincides with our original intention of establishing the Outland platform."

As of the time of publication, the Fang Lijun Elemental (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) NFT is priced at 6.92ETH on the Opensea floor.

04. Can James Jean continue Fang Lijun's glory and set a new high?

From the perspective of James Jean's personal painting level and artistic attainments, his artistic level is world-class and has a certain influence in the world. James Jean is also proficient in commercial art creation. He has cooperated with top international comic companies, film companies, luxury brands, magazines and media many times, and his artistic creation ability has also been fully recognized by the market.

In addition to James Jean's own rich experience in commercial art creation, James Jean has also signed a contract with the well-known Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Murakami Takashi also has extensive experience in commercial art creation and commercial operations, which will be released for James Jean NFT has strong background support.

In terms of platforms, Outland is an NFT distribution platform that has grown from the art field. The founder and core team have rich industry resources and experience in art commercial operations, and have a deep understanding of the commercial art market. On the other hand, the Outland team has released the Elemental (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) NFT series in conjunction with Fang Lijun, a famous domestic painting artist. The whitelist price is 0.2E, and the public sale is 0.3E. As of the writing of this article, the price is 5ETH. Judging from the successful issuance of Fang Lijun's NFT, the Outland platform and the team behind it have mature and excellent commercial operation capabilities in artistic NFT, and have rich experience in market operation and marketing promotion of artistic NFT projects. For the issuance of James Jean's NFT Foundation.

On the whole, James Jean's personal artistic attainments are top-notch, and he has a certain international influence. For the NFT distribution platform Outland, it has mature art commercialization operation capabilities and has successful NFT distribution cases. In addition, James Jean also has the support of Takashi Murakami to a certain extent. These hard conditions will help the successful issuance of James Jean, and it is more likely to be recognized by the NFT market.

However, we cannot simply compare James Jean’s NFT project with Fang Lijun’s NFT project, although both have a lot in common. The artistic attainments of the two artists are beyond doubt, and both have certain influence internationally. At the same time, they are all backed by the Outland platform , which has strong art commercial operation capabilities, but Fang Lijun’s NFT has the nature of a PASS card, and will have other rights and interests of the Outland platform. For example, holding Fang Lijun’s NFT will enjoy the two white lists of James Jean’s NFT, Therefore, there is still a substantial difference between the two to a certain extent. Therefore, Fang Lijun’s NFT cannot be directly used as a reference for price estimation.

As for whether James Jean can recreate Fang Lijun’s brilliance, it is entirely possible to comprehensively evaluate personal influence and platform operation capabilities, but as for whether the price can reach a new high, it will ultimately depend on the market’s recognition and the overall NFT market.