JR - Agence VU'

JR

biographY

JR has the largest art gallery in the world. Thanks to his photographic collage technique, he exhibits his work free of charge on the walls of the whole world – attracting the attention of those who do not usually go to museums.

Originator of the 28 Millimeters Project which he started in and around Clichy-Montfermeil in 2004, continued in the Middle East with Face 2 Face (2007), in Brazil and Kenya for Women Are Heroes (2008-2011), the documentary for which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 (Critics’ Week).

JR has created “Infiltrating art”. During his collage activities, the local communities take part in the act of artistic creation, with no stage separating actors from spectators. The anonymity of JR and the absence of any explanation accompanying his huge portraits leave him with a free space in which issues and actors, performers and passers-by meet, forming the essence of his work.

In 2011 he received the Ted Prize, giving him the opportunity to make a vow to change the world. He created Inside Out, an international participatory art project that allows people from around the world to receive a print of their portrait and then billboard it as support for an idea, a project, an action and share that experience.

In 2014, working with the New York City Ballet, he used the language of dance to tell his version of the riots in the Clichy-Montfermeil district. He created The Groves, a ballet and short film, the music for which was composed by Woodkid, Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams, and which was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival.

At the same time, JR worked in the abandoned hospital of Ellis Island, an important place in the history of immigration – and made the short film ELLIS, with Robert De Niro.

In 2016, JR was invited by the Louvre, whose pyramid he made disappear the with the help of an astonishing anamorphosis. The same year, during the Olympic Games in Rio, he created gigantic new sculptural installations throughout the city, to underline the beauty of the sporting gesture.

In 2017, he co-directed with Agnès Varda “Faces, Place”s, screened the same year in the official selection out of competition for the Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Golden Eye (for best documentary) and was nominated for a Caesar and an Oscar in the same category in 2018. He has received other awards around the world.

In 2013, the first retrospectives of JR’s work took place in Tokyo (at the Watari-Um Museum) and the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, followed by exhibitions at the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden Baden in 2014, and at the HOCA Foundation in Hong Kong in 2015. He exhibited in 2018 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and in 2019 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Brooklyn Museum.

JR is represented by Perrotin, PACE Gallery, Galleria Continua and Nara Roesler.

SEries

Déplacé.e.s, 2022

Série | In 2022, JR displayed huge portraits of children affected by war on the ground of big cities in several different countries, starting with Lviv, Ukraine.

Home-Réalisations JR séries

Australia - Homily to Country, 2021

Series | Homily to Country draws attention to the ecological decline of the Darling River (Baaka), Australia’s third longest river, caused by intensive water extraction due to irrigation, climate change and drought.

JR séries

Tehachapi, California (USA), 2019

In October 2019, French artist JR created a one-of-a-kind art activation within the walls of California Correctional Institution: Tehachapi in Southern California - a maximum security 4 facility.

JR séries

Chroniques, 2017 - 2019

In 2017, JR started a series of epic participatory murals, inspired by the work of the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957). Each work entailed photographing and filming hundreds of people, alone or in groups, and then collaging their portraits together to create a narrative and highly-realistic composition that dealt with a place or social issue.

JR séries

JR at the Louvre Museum, 2016-2019

From May 25th to June 27th, 2016, invited by the "world's largest museum", JR chose to make it disappear one of its symbols, the pyramid of the Louvre, thanks to an unexpected anamorphosis.

JR séries

Migrants, 2017

On October the 8th, on the last day of JR's installation on the border between Mexico and the United States, he organized a giant picnic on both sides of the wall.

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Giants, 2016 - 2018

Giants, a series of monumental photographic installations on scaffolding created in situ, was inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympic Games.

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The Wrinkles of the City, 2008-2015

The Wrinkles of the City is a project presented in various cities around the world where “wrinkles”, human as well as architectural, can be found.

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Ballet, 2015

Serie |

JR séries

UNFRAMED, 2009-2014

Série | Unframed is an ongoing project since 2009, realized using images by famous or anonymous photographers and archival images that JR interprets and takes out of their context depending on the place, neighborhood or city he works in.

JR séries

Women Are Heroes, 2008-2014

Serie | Women play an essential role in society but, travelling in conflict zones, JR realized that they are often the primary victims of war, crime, rape and political or religious fanaticism.

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Inside Out, 2011-2014

Serie | The concept of the project is to give everyone the opportunity to share their portrait and a statement of what they stand for, with the world. IOP provides individuals and groups from all corners of the globe with a vehicle to make a statement.

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Face 2 face, 2007

Serie | The Face2Face project is to make portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.

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Portrait of generation, 2006

Serie | In 2004, in search of places where no-one would expect to see art, JR held his first exhibition on the walls of Les Bosquets, the ‘ghetto’ of Montfermeil, a suburb of Paris.

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Expo 2 Rue, 2000-2006

Serie | JR began his career as a teenage graffiti artist interested in making his mark on public space and society. His graffiti often targeted precarious places like rooftops and subway trains, and he deeply enjoyed the adventure of going to and painting in these spaces.

Home-Réalisations JR séries