A comprehensive overview on the French artist who has transformed cities worldwide with his epic portraits of their inhabitants Over the past two decades, French artist JR has massively expanded the impact of public art through his ambitious projects that give visibility and agency to people around the world. Showcasing the full scope of the artist's career, JR: Chronicles accompanies the first major exhibition in North America of works by the French-born artist. Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement and street art, JR collaborates with communities by taking individual portraits, reproducing them at a monumental scale and wheat pasting them-sometimes illegally-in nearby public spaces. This superbly produced volume traces JR's career from his early documentation of graffiti artists as a teenager in Paris to his large-scale architectural interventions in cities worldwide, to his more recent digitally collaged murals that create collective portraits of diverse publics. The centerpiece of the accompanying exhibition is The Chronicles of New York City, a new epic mural of more than 1,000 New Yorkers. Also included are previously unseen murals set in Brooklyn; Face 2 Face, diptychs of Israelis and Palestinians in Palestinian and Israeli cities; Women Are Heroes, featuring images of the eyes of women gazing back at their communities in numerous countries; The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America, JR's complex work on guns in America; and other equally famous works. JR (born 1983) is best known for his monumental, wheat-pasted street portraiture projects. JR has carried out projects across the globe. He has shown in museums worldwide and has created site specific works for the Louvre, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the Centre Pompidou.
Reviews
JR's primary mode [is] capturing the overlooked and forcing people to gaze upon them. It is, without doubt, noble. In JR's projects, which take place around the world, he is both interloper and collaborator... -- John Caramanica * New York Times *
"JR: Chronicles" tracks his by now well-documented actions from the Gaza Strip and the slums of Southern Sudan and Sierra Leone, to more recent work in the United States. Because his art is centered on portraiture and involves wheat-pasting oversize prints on building exteriors, JR is usually categorized as a photographer or a street artist, but neither really gets at his abiding interest, which is people, and connecting them. -- Max Lakin * New York Times *
"JR: Chronicles" tracks his by now well-documented actions from the Gaza Strip and the slums of Southern Sudan and Sierra Leone, to more recent work in the United States. Because his art is centered on portraiture and involves wheat-pasting oversize prints on building exteriors, JR is usually categorized as a photographer or a street artist, but neither really gets at his abiding interest, which is people, and connecting them. -- Max Lakin * The New York Times *
Altogether, the pieces on display at [Brooklyn Museum] expand upon the artist's practice of merging photography with social engagement while gleaning methodical approaches from graffiti. * Hypebeast *
An enormous new interactive photo installation documents the joy and beauty of everyday life in the Big Apple. -- Aidan Graham * Brooklyn Paper *
Through his powerful storytelling abilities and willingness to question traditional power structures, JR breaks boundaries and re-invents the medium of photography. -- Bryan Shim * Design Boom *
The artist is known for his monumental public projects that rely on participation from his subjects, and for tackling hot-button social issues - immigration, women's rights and gun control, for a few - through his art. -- Alex Williamson * Brooklyn Eagle *
The retrospective's focal point is The Chronicles of New York City, 2018-19, a new mural about New York's five boroughs, capturing more than 1,000 New Yorkers and featuring audio of subjects talking about their lives. -- Raymond Ang * Wall Street Journal *
The streets have been at the heart of JR's practice, the place where the French artist finds his subjects, where he photographs them, and where he displays his work, wheatpasting enlarged images on buildings around the world... -- Sarah Cascone * Artnet *
[JR's photographs] challenge stereotypes by highlighting humanity through specificity... -- Kristen Tauer * WWD *



Book Information
ISBN 9782954226699
Author JR
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Clementine de La Feronniere
Publisher Clementine de La Feronniere