JR

Born in 1983 in Paris (FR)
Live in Paris and New-York (USA)

Biography of JR

JR was born in 1983 in Paris. In 2001, he started photography and decided to travel across Europe to meet the artists who expressed themselves in the street. Between 2004 and 2006, he produced his first series of collages, entitled “Portraits d’une génération”, portraying the inhabitants of the Bosquets housing projects. At the time, riots broke out in the suburbs. He decided to ask the residents to stage their own portraits, in order to address the manipulations of the events by the media. The pictures were pasted on the walls in the bourgeois districts of Paris. In 2005, he participated in Kim Chapiron’s feature “Sheitan” as an official photographer. In 2007, in collaboration with Marc Berrebi a.k.a Marco, he created the “face 2 face” project, featuring giant portraits of Israeli and Palestinian people doing the same job, illegally pasted on the separation wall. Since 2008, he has developed a series of pictures through several major cities entitled “The Wrinkles of the City”, highlighting the importance given to the aesthetics of our consumer society.
Between 2008 and 2010, he directed the “Women are Heroes” project, paying tribute to women and their courage. He traveled to the favelas of Rio, Kenya, India and Cambodia as part of the project. In September 2010, he was invited to the “Images” festival in Vevey (Switzerland) and for the first time, he used pictures of other artists from the collections of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. At the end of 2010, he was awarded the Ted Prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design). In 2011, he launched the “Inside Out” collective project that allows everyone to make large prints of a portrait in order to convey a message. The portraits are plasted spontaneously throughout the world by their owners. He keeps covering the walls of the world with portraits, and collaborating with French institutions and monuments such as the Pantheon, in 2014.

Exhibition dates of JR

2014
Dallas Contemporary, Dallas
New York City Ballet 2014 Art Series
Frieder Burda Museum, Baden Baden, Allemagne
Inside Out : « Au Panthéon ! »
Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai

2013
Lille, France, Happy Birthday 25 ans Galerie Perrotin au Tri Postal
Lazarides Rathbone, Londres
Inside Out London: Somerset House
Sortie du film Inside Out, the People’s Art Project en France en novembre
Inside Out Paris : Palais de Tokyo et Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam, Inside Out
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
UNFRAMED Atlanta, Living Walls
Bryce Wolkowitz, New York: “The Wrinkles of the City: Havana, Cuba” avec José Parlá
Inside Out New York – Inside Out Project installation et Photobooth à Times Square
Première mondiale du film Inside Out, The People’s Art Project au Tribeca Film Festival, New York
La Friche Belle de Mai, UNFRAMED Marseille
Springmann Gallery, Berlin
The Wrinkles of The City, Berlin
Watari-Um Museum, Tokyo

 

2012
Images Festival, Vevey, Suisse
Perrotin Gallery, Hong Kong

2011
Lauréat du TED Prize
UNESCO Prix du Jeune Artiste pour le dialogue interculturel entre les mondes arabe et occidental
Sortie du film Women Are Heroes dans les cinémas français en janvier
MOCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

2010
Women are Heroes, Festival de Cannes, Semaine de la Critique en association avec la Sélection Officielle
Contemporary Art Biennale, Shanghaï, Chine (groupe)
18Gallery – Magda Danysz, Shanghaï, Chine (solo)
Musée de l’Elysée / Festival Images Vevey, Suisse (solo)
MCASD, San Diego, USA (groupe)
Galerie Springmann, Düsseldorf, Allemagne (solo)
Lazinc, Los Angeles, USA (groupe)

 

2009
Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (groupe)
Action sur l’Île Saint Louis, le pont Louis-Philippe, le Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris, France (solo)
Casa França Brasil e Arcos da Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Brésil (solo)

2008
TATE Modern Museum, Londres, Angleterre (groupe)
Rath Museum, Genève, Suisse (solo)
Women are Heroes, action à Bruxelles, Belgique (solo)
Los Surcos de la Ciudad, action à Carthagène, Espagne (solo)

2007
Venice Biennale, Arsenal, Venise, Italie (groupe)
Foam – Photography Museum, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
Les Rencontres d’Arles, France
Artitud, Berlin, Allemagne (groupe)

2006
Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France (solo)
11 Spring, Manhattan, New York, USA (groupe)
Action à Wuppertal, Allemagne (solo)
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France (solo)
Espace des Blancs Manteaux, Paris, France (groupe)

Available artworks of JR

Works performed in the streets by JR

Videos of JR