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JR (; born 22 February 1983) is the
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
of a French photographer and street artist. JR stands for the initials of JR's first name, which is Jean-René. Describing himself as a ''photograffeur'' (a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsgraffeur"French for "
graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
artist"), he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations.Elizabeth Day
"The street art of JR"
''The Observer'', 7 March 2010.
He states that the street is "the largest art gallery in the world." He started out on the streets of Paris.Unattributed,
Street Art
" Tate Modern, accessed, 6 June 2016.
JR's work "often challenges widely held preconceptions and the reductive images propagated by advertising and the media." JR's work combines art and action, and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits.Excerpts from the book ''Women Are Heroes'' published by Alternatives, 2009. He has been introduced by Fabrice Bousteau as: "the one we already call the Cartier-Bresson of the 21st century".Excerpts from an interview of the artist published in ''Beaux Arts'' magazine, October 2009 On 20 October 2010, JR won the
TED Prize TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
for 2011. He used the $100,000 award money to start the '' Inside Out Project''. JR was included in ''Time'' magazine's ''100 Most Influential People of 2018.''


Life and career

JR was born in Paris in 1983. His mother was originally from Tunisia. JR began his career as a teenage graffiti artist who was by his own admission not interested in changing the world, but in making his mark on public space and society. His graffiti efforts often targeted precarious places like rooftops and subway trains, and he enjoyed the adventure of going to and painting in these spaces. After finding a camera in the
Paris Metro Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, JR and his friends began to document the act of his graffiti painting. At the age of 17, he began applying photocopies of these photographs to outdoor walls, creating illegal 'sidewalk gallery exhibitions'. JR later travelled throughout Europe to meet other people whose mode of artistic expression involved the use of outdoor walls. Then, he began wondering about the vertical limits, the walls and the façades that structure cities. After observing the people he met and listening to their message, JR pasted their portraits up in the streets and basements and on the roof tops of Paris. Between 2004 and 2006, JR created ''Portraits of a Generation'', portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris that he exhibited in huge format. This illegal project became official when the City of Paris put JR's photos up on buildings. At the beginning of his projects, JR wanted to bring art into the street: "In the street, we reach people who never go to museums." In 2005, JR began pasting photographs of individuals from Les Bosquets on the walls of Paris to rectify the unbalanced coverage and representation of the people in the epicentre of the French riots that year. In 2007, with Marco,Excerpts from the book Face2Face published by Alternatives in 2007. JR put up enormous photos of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities on either side of the Separation Barrier. Upon his return to Paris, he pasted these portraits up in the capital. For the artist, this artistic act is first and foremost a human project: "The heroes of the project are all those who, on both sides of the wall, allowed me to paste the portraits on their houses." In 2008, JR undertook an international tour for ''Women Are Heroes'', a project in which he highlights the dignity of women who are often targets during conflicts. On 20 October 2010, JR won the
TED Prize TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
for 2011. He used the $100,000 award money to start the '' Inside Out Project'', a global art initiative that has allowed thousands of people around the world to speak to their communities through portraits pasted in public space. This prize brought him and his work to New York City where he opened another studio, and inspired pastings in the area such as those done in 2011 of members of the Lakota Native American Tribe from North Dakota. In 2013, he continued working in New York City, with the ''Inside Out Project'' in
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
, which challenged advertising with a massive work of art consisting of thousands of portraits of locals and tourists. In January 2014, JR collaborated with the
New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company ...
for their second annual Art Series program, by exhibiting work in the theatre in Lincoln Center, including an interactive piece on the floor of the promenade. This collaboration led JR to explore the artistic medium of choreography in another project with the ballet months later. In March 2014, JR created an installation with 4,000 faces in and on the
Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...
in Paris. In August 2014, JR was invited to work in the abandoned hospital of
Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...
, an important chapter in the history of immigration. In 2015, he directed the short movie ELLIS, starring Robert De Niro. The movie, set in the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital complex and using JR's UNFRAMED art installations, tells the forgotten story of the immigrants who built America. In 2016, JR was invited by the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
and made I.M. Pei's famous glass pyramid disappear through a surprising
anamorphosis Anamorphosis is a distorted projection requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film special e ...
. That year, he also worked on his ''Giants'' series in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics, creating new gigantic sculptural installations at the scale of the city, depicting competing athletes in action, supported by scaffolding. His work putting an emphasis on the beauty of the athletic movement. His latest projects include a museum exhibition dedicated to children at Centre Pompidou, a permanent collaboration with the Brazilian artists Os Gemeos at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in a space used to store stolen pianos during World War II, a gigantic installation at the US-Mexico border fence, and a film, '' Faces Places,'' co-directed with
Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
, travelling around France to meet people and discuss their visions. JR calls himself an "urban artivist", he creates pervasive art that he puts up on the buildings in the Paris area projects, on the walls of the Middle East, on the broken bridges of Africa or in the
favelas Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...
of Brazil. During the pasting phase, community members take part in the artistic process. In Brazil, for example, children became artists for a week. In these artistic acts, no scene separates the actors from the spectators. After having exhibited in the cities from which JR's subjects came, the photos traveled from New York to Berlin, Amsterdam to Paris As JR remains anonymous and does not frame his huge portraits, he leaves a space for an encounter between a subject/protagonist and a passerby/interpreter, and this is the essence of his work. In 2018, JR partnered with ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine, to produce their cover story, featuring over two hundred Americans who have been impacted by guns, including "hunters and activists, teachers and police officers, parents and children", to produce "Guns in America"—a talking mural—on one of the most polarizing issues in the United States today. JR filmed the 245 contributors in three selected cities,
Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. The November 5, 2018 ''Time'' cover is a collage of those individuals, whose profiles become a gateway to 245 unique stories. In March 2019, JR again reimagined the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
pyramid in a 3D
optical illusion Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
. He used his iconic black and white stickers to make it appear as if the pyramid continued underground in an excavated crater. It was left in shreds within a day as visitors walked across it. JR embraced its short duration and even said that brevity had been his intent. He stated on Twitter: "The images, like life, are ephemeral. Once pasted, the art piece lives on its own. The sun dries the light glue and with every step, people tear pieces of the fragile paper. The process is all about participation of volunteers, visitors, and souvenir catchers." JR is well known for his works with a humanistic approach that portray social realities. In November 2019, JR worked with a group of prisoners in a maximum-security prison in Tehachapi (California) and create
a piece
on the ground of a large courtyard of that institution. The great mural, photographed from a drone, shows the portraits of prisoners and former convicts who shared their stories. His intention was to "give voice to prisoners" and humanize their environment.


Critical reception

In 2010, during a radio program in San Diego, California, artist
Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...
stated: "JR is the most ambitious street artist working." ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' has described his work as "revealing humanity." With over a million Instagram followers, he's one of the most popular artists on social media. In March 2014, in
Les Inrockuptibles ''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock and roll, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though ...
, Jean-Max Colard described his installation at the
Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
as "demagogic". The same magazine also accuses him of "transforming the wild and rebellious practice of graffiti and postering into a legal, pompous and official art". In April 2014, Fanny Erlandis for ''Slate'' judged that her Not A Bug Splat project was "Ultra-demago". In the summer of 2015, his project with the evocative title AV and JR two artists on the go arouses incomprehension and harsh criticism. The project, led by recognized artists, appeals to the public generosity of a crowdfunding platform – a type of funding rather reserved for the launch of new artists. The media describe the project and its approach as candid and clumsy at best, condescending and demagogic at worst.


Works


''28 Millimetres''

JR considers himself as "neither a street artist nor a photographer". To carry out his projects, he uses photography but also video, prints on paper or tarpaulins, urban spaces, books and especially social links. JR noted "I would like to bring art to improbable places, create projects so huge with the community that they are forced to ask themselves questions. I want to try to create images of hot spots such as the Middle East or Brazil that offer different points of view from the ones we see in the worldwide media which are often caricatures."


''Portraits of a Generation''

''The Portraits of a Generation'' project constitutes the first stage of the ''28 mm'' project. After the first unauthorized exhibit on the walls of the Cité des Bosquets housing project, JR returned and set himself up of this housing project and the neighbouring one, the Cité de la Forestière, both in the epicenter of the 2005 riots in the French suburbs. The first portraits were rapidly exhibited on the walls of the last popular neighbourhoods of the capital, in the east of Paris. These photos provoked the passerby in as much as they questioned the social and media representation of a whole generation that for some is only to be seen relegated to the outskirts of the capital.


''Face 2 Face''

The ''Face 2 Face'' project tried to show that beyond what separates them, Israelis and Palestinians are enough alike to be able to understand one another. Israeli and Palestinian men and women who have the same jobs accepted to laugh or cry, to scream or pull faces in front of JR's lens. The portraits created were pasted up face to face, in monumental format on either side of the Separation Wall and in several surrounding towns. JR photographed and Marco wrote, together succeeding in creating the largest unauthorized urban art exhibit in the world (''la plus grande exposition d'art urbain au monde''). The project's goal was to show through images that art and laughter combined can break down prejudice. The film ''Faces'', directed by Gerard Maximin, about this artistic undertaking carried out in the Middle East by JR and Marco has won numerous prizes.


''Women are Heroes''

For this project, JR slipped into fantasmatic places, the ones seen on TV when there is violence, the ones an observer might go close to but never enter and that will not be found on any tourist guidebook tour. ''Women are Heroes'' introduces women who sometimes look death in the face, who go from laughter to tears, who are generous, have nothing and yet share, who have had a painful past and long to build a happy future. In seeking what is common in their gaze, JR tried to get closer to what is universal: the human being. This project allowed him to keep the promise he made to these women: ''faire voyager leur histoire'' (to make their story travel). Women are Heroes has traveled to locations including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, Brazil, India, and Cambodia. In 2014, JR made one final project for ''Women Are Heroes'' with the dockers of Le Havre, France. Imaging a woman's eyes from the previous trip in Kenya, JR and his team completed the largest pasting to date on shipping containers that were then stacked on a container ship traveling from Le Havre to Malaysia. In doing so, he finally took the women's stories around the globe.


''Wrinkles of the City''

The ''Los Surcos de la Ciudad'' project (''The Wrinkles of the City'') is based on the encounter between JR, the city of
Cartagena, Spain Cartagena () is a Spanish city and a major Cartagena Naval Base, naval station on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Iberia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants, being the region's second-largest ...
, and its oldest inhabitants who are taken as the memory incarnate of the Murcian city, marked by the scars of its history, economic expansion and socio-cultural mutations. While meeting and photographing the elderly, JR imaged their wrinkles, the furrows of their brows, as the marks of time, the traces of their lives that are linked with the history of the city.Excerpts from and interview of the inhabitants of Cartagena who participated in the Los surcos de la ciudad project in 2008
Video
/ref> For JR, these older people are the living memory of a city changing faster than they themselves age. For him, every one of their wrinkles and each day that goes by are inscribed in the buildings and in the streets of old Cartagena that provided JR with a heterogeneous architecture. , ''The Wrinkles of the City'' project has reached Cartagena, Spain;
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
, China; Los Angeles, California; Havana, Cuba; Berlin, Germany, and Istanbul, Turkey. In 2012, JR collaborated on the Cuban iteration of the project with José Parlá, a Brooklyn-based artist of Cuban descent, for the Havana Biennale. The artists installed huge murals of photographs of senior citizens who had lived through the revolution, enhanced with Parlá's calligraphic writings and painted lines.


''Inside Out Project''

The '' Inside Out Project'' is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work in the form of black and white photographic portraits. The images are uploaded digitally and made into posters and sent back to the project's co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities.Excerpts from the Inside Out project
webpage explaining the motive behind the globally public art project.
Over 150,000 people from more than 108 countries have participated.The numbers so far
homepage of the Inside Out Project
In 2013, the project created a massive exhibit in
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
that challenged advertising with art created from thousands of portraits of locals and tourists. The effort to engage New Yorkers across the five boroughs after
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
, was completed using one of the ''Inside Out Project'' Photobooth trucks. This method created by JR produced a more direct connection of his work to the streets through an immediate interaction with the community and the people. The Photobooth trucks have since traveled around the world for a variety of different causes, including a nationwide tour that brought attention to immigration reform in America, and a 10-stop trip to major monuments in France ending with a large installation in the
Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...
in Paris.


''Unframed''

''Unframed'' is an ongoing project that began in 2010, realized using images by famous or anonymous photographers, and archival images that JR interpreted and took out of their context depending on the place, neighborhood, or city he worked in. In works such as those made in May 2013 in
Marseille, France Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern France ...
, JR dug into the identity of the neighborhood of la Belle de Mai, and invited its inhabitants to think about the memory of their streets by looking into their personal photo albums. The photographs, old or new, cropped or enlarged, create monumental artworks on the facades of neighborhoods and transform personal and multiple footprints of what is part of the city's history and collective memory. JR has exhibited ''Unframed'' works in Cincinnati, Marseille, Atlanta, Washington DC, Baden Baden, Grottaglie, Vevey, and São Paulo. In 2014, JR continued his ''Unframed'' project on
Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...
, using photos from when the island operated as the entryway for millions of immigrants to America. These archival images were installed into the facades and walls of the abandoned hospital on the grounds that once housed the sick and dying.


''NYCBallet''

In 2014, JR collaborated with the
New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company ...
for their second annual Art Series program. JR exhibited artworks in the
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
David H. Koch theatre in January and February, including a large installation of an interactive piece on the floor of the promenade. This work followed his model of engaging with his fans and the public across social divides, connecting ballet patrons to first time attendees with the image of the life-size ballerinas on the ground. The Art Series led to further collaborations between the artist and the New York City Ballet, as months later he explored a new artistic medium of choreography. JR worked with the company's ballet master in chief Peter Martins to create a piece titled ''Les Bosquets'' based on his beginnings during the 2005 riots in the Parisian suburbs. For this project, the dancers became his paper and his works were transformed to the stage.


U.S.–Mexico border art

In September 2017, JR erected a scaffolding with a large photograph of a little boy, on the Mexican side of the U.S.–Mexico border, giving the impression of the toddler curiously peering over the fence, when seen from the U.S. side. The boy, named Kikito, lives with his family close to the border in
Tecate Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico-US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area has a population of 132,406 inhab ...
, where the piece of art was erected. On the last day of the installation, a border crossing picnic was arranged, with hundreds of participants. Food was passed through the fence, and was eaten off a surface with a photograph, picturing the eyes of a young undocumented U.S. immigrant (sometimes known as "
Dreamers Dreamers or The Dreamers may refer to: Books * "Dreamers", a 1918 war poem by Siegfried Sassoon * "The Dreamers" (play), a 1982 play by Jack Davis * ''The Dreamers'' (novel series), a 2003–06 fantasy series by David Eddings and Leigh Eddings ...
"). The left eye was on a table on the Mexico side; the right eye was on a tarp on the U.S. side, together creating the impression of a single long dining table when viewed from above.
Aerial photograph
) JR expected the picnic to be shut down, but it was tolerated, with one of the U.S. border agents sharing a cup of tea with the artist.


Greetings from Giza

In October 2021, JR participated in the festival Forever is Now, which brings contemporary art to antique sites. He decided to intervene on the Pyramid of Khafre and created the trompe-l'oeil ''Greetings from Giza'', made of mesh and a steel structure. Using an anamorphosis technique, the top of the pyramid appeared to float in mid-air. At the same time, JR released his first NFT collection, composed of 4,591 pieces of the work's image.


The resilience of Ukraine

After
2022 invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, he inaugurated ''The resilience of Ukrainie'', in Lviv.


Feature films

JR transferred his ''Women Are Heroes'' project to the cinema in directing a feature film made up of images of the pasting phase of the installations and interviews of the women. Through this documentary film, the artist shows us how he installed the portraits of the women in urban spaces and the reactions of the inhabitants. He explains "this film gathers the images and the words of the women he met, the day to day flow of their lives and experiences to create, through art, a reality different from the one shown in the media". This first film was part of the Official Selection of the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
in 2010. It was programmed in during ''La Semaine de la Critique'' (
International Critics' Week The International Critics' Week (french: Semaine de la Critique) was founded in 1962 and is organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created following the showing of '' The Connection'' directed by Shirley Clarke which had been ...
), and competed for the
Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des ...
. In May 2010, JR was invited to present his film on '' Le Grand Journal'' on
Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
in Cannes during the festival. JR's second film, ''Inside Out: The People's Art Project'', is a documentary that tracks the evolution of the biggest participatory art project in the world, ''Inside Out''. JR inspired communities to define their most important causes with displays of giant black and white portraits pasted in the street. The project encourages citizens to take ownership of walls that were previously restricted and in doing so testing the limits of what they thought was possible. It is a Social Animals production in association with Notting Hill Films, directed by Alastair Siddons. This film was featured as an official Documentary Feature Spotlight selection at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, premiered at the SVA Theatre on West 23rd Street, on Saturday, April 20 and debuted on HBO in May 2013. In 2015, JR made the movie ''Les Bosquets'' inspired by the riots in the French suburbs in 2005 and featuring the performance of the ballet ''Les Bosquets of New York City Ballet'' (2014). The same year, he directed the short film titled '' Ellis'', starring Robert De Niro. In 2017, JR's collaboration with filmmaker
Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
, '' Faces Places'', was released. It won the "Golden Eye" for best documentary film at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 90th Academy Awards amongst other awards listed later on this page and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
. JR's film
Paper & Glue Temposhark was an English electronic rock band, formed in London and Brighton by singer-songwriter Robert Diament and one-time music producer Luke Busby. Temposhark were best known for their songs ''Bye Bye Baby'', ''Joy'', ''It's Better To ...
was released in 2021. It was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.


Exhibitions


2009

* Paris, France, Ile Saint-Louis – Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Mairie du 4e arr.


2010

* Shanghai, China –
Gallery Magda Danysz Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gre ...
– ''The Wrinkles of the City''


2013

* Cincinnati, OH –
Contemporary Arts Center The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculptur ...


2014

*
Baden Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with France ...
, Germany – Museum Frieder Burda.


2015

* Boston, MA – translucent pasting on glass of the John Hancock Tower, spanning from the 44th to the 50th floors * London – Lazarides


2016

* Paris –
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
. From May 25 to June 27, JR transformed the
Louvre Pyramid The Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre) is a large glass and metal structure designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smalle ...
using one of his anamorphic images. When seen from the right angle, the Pyramid seemed to disappear.


Awards

On 20 October 2010, JR won the
TED Prize TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
for 2011. In 2017, his documentary with Agnès Varda, entitled ''Faces, Places'' was nominated for and won several awards and accolades, including the following: * Won the L'Œil d'or, le prix du documentaire / The Golden Eye, the Documentary Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival * Won the Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival * Won the Most Popular International Documentary Award at the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival * Won Best Documentary at the 2018 Independent Spirit Awards * Received the award for Best Non-Fiction Film by the New York Film Critics Circle * ''Time Magazine'' listed it as one of its top ten films of 2017 * Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards * Nominated for Best Documentary and Best Original Score at the 2018 César Awards In 2021, his latest film, entitled ''Paper & Glue,'' was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.


See also

* ''
The Standing March ''The Standing March'' is a collaborative art installation by the French artist JR and the American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. The artwork, which depicts more than 500 people, was projected onto the facade of the National Assembly building during ...
'' (2015)


References


External links

*
Official project Site for ''28 millimètres''

''Women Are Heroes'' Official site for the film.
*
Galerie Lazarides JR profile

Galerie Springmann, Dusseldorf

Galerie Magda Danysz, Shanghaï

"The Lithographies" (work by JR) on the site Social Animals

Le Blog Libération

"The street art of JR"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', 7 March 2010.
"JR: The hippest street artist since Banksy"
''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'', 15 February 2009.
In your face for peace!
– ''
LensCulture ''LensCulture'' is a photography network and online magazine about contemporary photography in art, media, politics, commerce and popular cultures worldwide. It is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. ''LensCulture'' sponsors international photograph ...
'', 7 July 2007.
"JR uses images to challenge stereotypes"
''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', 23 October 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jr 1983 births Living people 21st-century French artists Pseudonymous artists French contemporary artists French graffiti artists French photographers