The Brooklyn Museum Announces the First Major North American Exhibition of Works by French Artist JR

JR: Chronicles marks the premier of a new monumental mural, The Chronicles of New York City, and features the artist’s most iconic projects from the past fifteen years 

 JR (French, born 1983). The Chronicles of New York City, 2018–19 (detail). © JR-ART.NET

The Brooklyn Museum presents the largest solo museum exhibition to date of the internationally recognized artist JR, featuring some of his most iconic projects from the past fifteen years. 

JR: Chronicles also marks the debut of a monumental new mural, The Chronicles of New York City, which features more than 1,000 people who were photographed and interviewed in New York City during summer 2018. The exhibition highlights JR’s use of art to foster conversations and collaborations with communities around the globe. JR: Chronicles will take up over 20,000 square feet of the Museum’s soaring Great Hall, and is on view from October 4, 2019, through May 3, 2020. The exhibition is curated by Sharon Matt Atkins, Director of Exhibitions and Strategic Initiatives, and Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum. 

“Over the past two decades, JR has emerged as one of the most powerful storytellers of our time,” says Drew Sawyer. “Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement, and street art, his collaborative public projects have allowed participants to choose how they would like to be represented in both their communities and the global media.”

JR is a TED Prize winner, Oscar nominated filmmaker, and one of Time’s 100 most influential people of 2018. He has received critical acclaim for his global art projects that bring together diverse groups of participants and create dialogue around critical social issues, from women’s rights to immigration to gun control. JR spotlights communities across the world by photographing individual members of those communities and then wheat pasting their images—sometimes illegally—at a monumental scale usually reserved for advertisements featuring models, celebrities, and politicians. These installations are deliberately placed in public spaces near or within the communities with whom JR has partnered, allowing the individuals portrayed to remain at the center of the discussions prompted by the artist’s work.

The first section of the exhibition traces JR’s artistic evolution, focusing on his commitment to community, collaboration, and civic discourse. Early photographic projects are featured, including Expo 2 Rue (2001–4), where he documented and pasted photocopies of his community of graffiti artists in action, using the streets as an open gallery. Portrait of a Generation (2004–6) features portraits of young people from Les Bosquets, a housing project in the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil that became a central location for countrywide riots in 2005 amid rising socioeconomic and police tensions. JR and his friend Ladj Ly, a filmmaker and resident of Les Bosquets, worked with the community to capture portraits, and then wheat pasted the images both in Montfermeil and throughout Paris. By bringing the faces of young people from the projects to prominence, JR and his collaborators brought attention to the misrepresentation of these individuals in the media, thereby also challenging the public’s assumptions and biass.