San Gimignano
Beijing
Les Moulins
Habana
Roma
Sao Paulo
Paris
Dubai
JR, born in France in 1983, is an artist who exhibits freely in the streets, communities and public spaces of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. His work mixes Art and Action; it tackles themes such as commitment, freedom, community and identity.
JR’s career as an artist began in 2001 when he found a camera in the Parisian Metro. In 2006, he launched Portrait of a Generation, huge-format portraits of suburban “thugs” from Paris’ notorious banlieues, posted on the walls of bourgeois districts in Paris. In 2007, with his partner Marco Berrebi, he created Face 2 Face, which some consider the biggest illegal photo exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities and on both sides of the security fence/separation barrier. He embarked on a long international trip in 2008 for his project Women Are Heroes underlining the dignity of women who are the target of conflict. In 2011, he won the TED Prize for his phenomenal work done worldwide, after which he created Inside Out, an international participatory art project that encourages people worldwide to get their picture taken and paste it up in their home environment. It’s a global platform for people to share their personal stories and contribute a sense of identity to their communities through their participation in a global art project.
In 2014 he realizes the following projects: a huge installation of Inside Out au Panthéon in Paris, a collaboration with New York City Ballet, Women are Heroes a pasting of a container ship in Le Havre, Unframed on Ellis Island. In 2016 he realizes scaffolding installations at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, intervenes in the courtyard of the Louvre. In 2017 he received an Academy Award Nominated feature documentary Visages Villages co-directed with the French New Wave director Agnès Varda, realizes a huge photographic installation at the US-Mexico border fence, and the murals The Chronicles of Clichy-Montfermeil (suburbs of Paris). In 2018 it is the turn of the photographic and cinematographic project Guns in America The Chronicles of San Francisco and The Chronicles of New York City. In 2019 JR had solo shows at SFMOMA, San Francisco, and Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA. In 2021 JR: Chronicles is on show at Groeningen Museum (The Netherlands) and in 2022 at the Munich Kunsthalle.
JR's blown-up photographs are pasted on mainly urban surfaces such as the sides of buildings, bridges, rooftops and even trains. Not only do they confront the public audience, they help engage audiences where they least expect it while involving their respective communities in an artistic action that consolidates their relationship to their immediate surroundings; JR’s art is about asking questions and opening a conversation between people.
2024
Déplacé.e.s, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm, Sweden (forthcoming)
2023
JR: Chronicles, Lotte Museum, Seoul, South Korea
Déplacé.e.s, Galleria d'Italia, Torino, Italia
2022
JR: Chronicles, Kunsthalle Münich, Germany
2021
JR: Chronicles, Groeningen Museum, Groeninger, The Netherlands
JR: Chronicles, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2019
The Chronicles of New York City, Brooklyn Museum, NYC, USA
The Chronicles of San Francisco, SF MoMA, San Francisco, USA
2018
Momentum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Amor Fati, J1 Hangar, Marseilles, France
So Close, The Armory Show, NYC, USA
Giants, Brandeburg Gate, Berlin
2017
Chroniques de Clichy-Montfermeil, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Répertoire, Qatar Museums Gallery, Katara, Qatar, Emirates
Mind the Gap, permanent installation, Château La Coste, Provence, France
2016
You are here, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2015
JR: A Survey Exhibition, Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation, Hong Kong
Uprising, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Málaga, Spain
JR is ‘Monumental Artist', Toronto Nuit Blanche, Toronto, Canada
2014
Inside Out exhibition, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, USA
JR, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany
Close Up, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2013
JR, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
JR, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
2009
JR, Les Rencontres Photographiques d'Arles, Arles, France
Women Are Heroes, banks of the Ile-Saint-Louis and the Louis-Philippe Bridge, Paris
2007
Outdoor exhibition, front façade of the FOAM Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Outdoor exhibition, Les Rencontres Photographiques d'Arles, Arles, France
2006
Portrait of a Generation, Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France
Portrait of a Generation, Espace des Blanc-Manteaux, Paris, France
Portrait of a Generation, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Sidewalk Gallery, 11 Spring Street, New York, USA
2024
La Nascita, monumental anamorphosis on Milano Centrale train station, Milano, Italy
2023
Retour à la Caverne, installation in two acts on Opéra Garnier, Paris, France
Les Enfants d'Ouranos, in-situ installation on the Parrish Art Museum's facade in Water Mill, NY, USA
Giants, Rising Up, installation in Hong Kong harbor
2022
Déplacé.e.s, Rwanda, Mauritania, Greece, Colombia, Ukraine (ongoing project)
Woman, Life, Freedom, performances in New York City and Rio de Janeiro
Valeriia, procession in Lviv, Ukraine
Valeriia, installation at the Venice Biennale
2021
Greetings from Gizah, pyramids, Cairo and first NFT project
Punto di fuga, Palazzo Farnese, Rome
Les Falaises du Trocadéro, Paris
La Ferita, (The Wound), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
2020
Homily to Country, River Darling (Baaka), Australia
Omelia Contadina, San Gimignano, Italy
Omelia Contadina, Venice, Italy
JR au Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Estádio do Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil
Brise Lames, ballet with choreographer Damien Jalet at the Opera Paris
2019
JR au Louvre & The Secret of the Great Pyramid, Paris, France
Tehachapi, Correctional Institution, California, USA
Omelia Contadina, Castel Giorgio & Onano, Italy
Tehachapi project at California Correctional Institution
2018
The Chronicles of New York City, NYC, USA
The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America, Saint-Louis, Washington, Dallas, USA
Giants, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
Giants, Death Valley, California, USA
Refettorio, community kitchen in the crypt of the church La Madeleine
The Chronicles of New York City, San Francisco, USA
Inside Out ‘Vote’, USA
2017
Giants, Tecate, US–Mexico border fence
Migrants, Picnic across the border, Tecate, US–Mexico border fence
Clichy Montfermeil Chronicles, Clichy, France
Inside Out Education and Inside Out Dreamers, USA
2016
Giants, Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
JR au Louvre, Pyramid of the Louvre, Paris, France
2015
Wrinkles of the City, Istanbul, Turkey
Migrants, Philadelphia, USA
JR is ‘Monumental Artist', Toronto Nuit Blanche, Toronto, Canada
The Standing March, UN COP 21 climate conference in collaboration with Darren Aronofsky, Paris, France
2014
Unframed, Ellis Island, NYC, USA
Unframed, Baden-Baden, Germany
Inside Out, Panthéon, Paris, France
Inside Out, Shanghai, China
Les Bosquets, Lincoln Center NYC, USA
Ballet, Opéra Garnier, Paris, France
Woman Are Heroes, Le Havre, France
2013
Wrinkles of the City, Berlin, Germany
Unframed, Belle de Mai, Marseilles, France
Unframed, Atlanta, USA
Unframed, Bordeaux, France
Inside Out, Times Square NYC, USA
Inside Out, BNF, Paris, France
Portrait of a Generation - Destruction, Clichy, Montfermeil, France
2012
Wrinkles of the City, 11th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba
Inside Out, Highline, New York, USA
Inside Out, Hong Kong
Inside Out, Kesennuma, Japan
Inside Out, Port au Prince, Haiti
Unframed, Washington, DC, USA
‘Be the Change’ Global Inside Out, 17 cities across the world
2011
Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles, USA
Inside Out, Tunis, Tunisia
Inside Out, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Inside Out, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, Emirates
Inside Out, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Israel
Unframed, São Paulo, Brazil
2010
Wrinkles of the City, Shanghai Biennale, China
Unframed, Vevey, Switzerland
2009
Women Are Heroes, Kibera slum, Kenya
Women Are Heroes, Jaipur, India
Women Are Heroes, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Women Are Heroes, Arcos da Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Unframed, Grottaglie, Italy
Casa Amarela cultural centre, Morro da Providência favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2008
Women Are Heroes, Morro da Providência favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Women Are Heroes, Freetown and Bo Town, Sierra Leone
Women Are Heroes, Monrovia, Liberia
Women Are Heroes, Sudan
Women Are Heroes, Brussels, Belgium
Wrinkles of the City, Cartagena, Spain
2007
Face 2 Face, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and separation walls, Israel-Palestine
Face 2 Face, 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy
2005
Portrait of a Generation, Les Bosquets, Montfermeil, France
Portrait of a Generation, Paris, France
2001
Expo 2 Rue, Paris, France
2011
TED Prize
2021
Paper & Glue, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, New York
2020
Omelia Contadina, short film co-directed with Alice Rohrwacher
2017
Faces, Places, codirected with Agnès Varda
Clichy-Montfermeil Chroniques, codirected with Ladj Ly
2015
Ellis, short film shot on Ellis Island, starring Robert De Niro
The Standing March, with Darren Arnosfky
Wrinkles of the City, Istanbul
Les Bosquets, short film featuring ballet dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet in Paris, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, New York
2014
Rivages, directed by Guillaume Cagniard about JR's pasting on a container ship in Le Havre, France
2013
Wrinkles of the City Havana, Havana Cuba, codirected with José Parla
Inside Out: The people’s art project, documentary film directed by Alastair Siddons premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, New York
2010
Women are Heroes, film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during Critics' Week
2007
Faces, by Gmax
