JR | 常青画廊

About

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.

Art

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.

His more recent projects include: 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, an Academy Award Nominated feature documentary Visages Villages co-directed with the French New Wave director Agnès Varda, scaffolding installations at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, JR at the Louvre, a huge photographic installation at the US-Mexico border fence, the photographic and cinematographic project Guns in America and the murals The Chronicles of Clichy-Montfermeil (suburbs of Paris),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.

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.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

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

2017

Chroniques de Clichy-Montfermeil, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

Répertoire, Qatar Museums Gallery, Katara, Qatar, Emirates

Mind the Gap, 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

2007

Outdoor exhibition, 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, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France

Sidewalk Gallery, 11 Spring Street, New York, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2011

Arts in the streets, MOCA Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2010

Viva la revolucion : A dialogue with the Urban Landscape, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA

2008

Street Art, Tate Modern, London, UK

Outdoor exhibition, International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland

2007

Outdoor exhibition, Artitud, Berlin, Germany

Projects

2019

JR au Louvre & The Secret of the Great Pyramid, Paris, France

Tehachapi, Correctional Institution, California, USA

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

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

Awards

2011

TED Prize

Films

2017

Faces, Places, codirected with Agnès Varda

Chroniques de Clichy-Montfermeil, codirected with Ladj Ly

2015

Ellis

The Standing March

2014

Les Bosquets

Rivages, directed by Guillaume Cagniard

2013

Wrinkles of the City Havana, Havana Cuba, codirected with José Parla

Inside Out, the people’s art project, directed by Alastair Siddons

2011

Women are Heroes