The Recurrence of Sunglasses & Ambiguous Narratives: Analyzing the Artworks of James Wolanin

Using vivid and bold colors in his paintings, building upon them layer by layer using a unique stenciling technique, James Wolanin creates a lively, utopian composition for the viewer. In looking at his work, I was extremely intrigued by his artistic style, which bears fundamental similarities to advertisements, and even graphic novels. In applying this style to his work, Wolanin brings his portraits to life, allowing the images to resonate with the viewer nostalgically.

James Wolanin is a New Jersey-based artist with a background as a designer. He is heavily influenced by pop art and artists such as Alex Katz, Andy Warhol, and James Rosenquist. His work consists of portraits relative to the theme of 1960s Americana, many of which include people wearing sunglasses; with this being a recurrent theme in his work, I interpreted it as a way of shining light onto the concept of wearing rose-tinted glasses—especially in the context of the setting of his pieces, being utopian views of mid-century America. Wolanin says he aims to use his art to “bring the viewer back to a simpler time, a time of innocence,” and the consistency in his figures wearing glasses could be a way of demonstrating this and creating this kind of utopian world. In doing so, Wolanin brilliantly unlocks an ambiguous narrative, allowing for further interpretation to be up to the viewer.

This concept can be seen in many of his artworks following themes of relaxation, bliss, and vacation that are portrayed within the tropical beach and pool settings. Some of these artworks include Wolanin’s piece “Nirvana,” in which a woman appears to be paddling on a surfboard in the water while wearing a pair of sunglasses and looking off into the distance. Along with this, in his piece “The Look,” Wolanin depicts a man sitting on the edge of a pool with sunglasses on and looking out into the distance as well. This portrayal of both figures in these pieces looking off to what lies ahead of them further demonstrates both Wolanin’s intentions of bringing the viewer back to “a time of innocence,” as well as the ambiguous narrative mentioned before.

With a large amount of Wolanin’s pieces being associated with summer, the beach, or the pool, I thought the painting “On A Winter’s Day” was particularly interesting. The piece, though different from the others, as it takes place in the snow during the winter, does still bear one fundamental similarity: the presence of sunglasses.

In his pieces “I Dream in Color” and “Radiance” Wolanin depicts close-up portraits of women wearing both head scarfs and, of course, sunglasses. I found that these pieces created a more directly indirect intimate connection between the artwork and viewer, with the painting being composed of the women’s faces from the neck up with heads tilted in opposite directions in which their gaze falls, Wolanin leaves room for mystery and for the viewer to want to know more about each of the figures: Where are they looking? What would happen if they took off their sunglasses? What do they see, or think that they see?