The French street artist Jr is everywhere and nowhere. Describing himself as a “photografer” (photographer and artist of graffiti), he orchestrates spectacular public facilities, often supersing the faces of everyday people and postulating the employees in places marked by violence. They included a curious toddler looking at the border fence of Mexico, the eyes of women looking at a favela in Rio de Janeiro and incarcerated characters looking up from the central courtyard of a high security prison in California. His Instagram account, where the 42 -year -old artist often speaks with a camera in his brand sunglasses and pork pie hat (“What's new, everyone?”), To 1.8 million followers.
On the art market, however, JR – supposedly initials of his name, Jean René – remains relatively underground. According to the Artnet database, its sale of sales of all time around 750 works compared to over 8,000 years, according to the Artnet database, while its public record price is at the equivalent of € 101,400, for work mounted on corrugated metal according to its Women are heroes Series, 10 times lower than the recordings of other contemporary artists on demand.
But the presence of JR will be felt in London this week when the French mega -singer Emmanuel Perrotin will open a new gallery in London – located at the Claridge hotel – with a solo exhibition of recent and new studio. “It is very popular and we like to have as many visitors as possible in the gallery,” explains Perrotin. He remembers that the opening day of his first show with the artist, in Paris in 2011, had thousands of visitors – also incited by British Band Massive Attack, who played in the courtyard of the gallery.
Like many, Perrotin fell on the artist's work by accident. “I was on a highway in Shanghai and I saw the face of an old woman on a water tower (” The wrinkles of the city “in 2010).” JR has taken a certain persuasion to be represented by a renowned shopping gallery, known as Perrotin. “It was not what he thought he wanted – he thinks that the world is his gallery. But we had a lot of interest in common. In addition, I say what I think, so he took me seriously.
The rest of the inner circle of the art world was less convinced. “They were suspects because it was so popular, which often happens. But with JR, as with others, something changes, I never know what, and people decide while an artist is part of his community rather than in the twilight zone, “explains Perrotin.
The transformation was marked. “He started as a ragamuffin with something to say,” explains Steve Lazarides, a former gallery owner who welcomed JR program in London earlier in the artist's career. JR started by taking photos of Graffiti companions on the outskirts of Paris and was apparently intrepid when it came to climbing buildings or tunnels. He then published photocopies of his shots in the street, supervised of aerosol painting.
JR remains “very close to the scene (from the street)”, says Perrotin, but he was worth starry friends along the way. These include Robert de Niro, with whom JR recently made a film. Lauren Panzo, vice -president of Pace Gallery, who has represented JR since 2018, describes his art today as “activism, narration and spectacle at the same time – a powerful recall of the impact that images can have to shape our world”.
Solo museum exhibitions took place at Brooklyn Museum, SFMOMA in San Francisco and Saatchi Gallery in London, but JR needs the market, using money earned from studio work to finance its public projects. The figures obviously do not accumulate. The artist refuses any brand collaboration or corporate partnership while “his prices are reasonable, then you add production costs, etc. The gallery makes an effort, ”explains Perrotin.
He notes that JR “has the ability to make people do, to help them help”, including the fundamental support of local communities that take off each project, even when they are not legally sanctioned. Lazarides says that the key to JR's call – communities and collectors – “is that he often shows smiling or playing people, rather than staging voyeurist as victims”.
There will be 15 works in sight in the space of Claridge this week. These come from two series: Children of Ouranos, based on photographs of children playing in refugee camps around the world, and Moved The project began in 2022 and for which the artist, with the help of the inhabitants, deploys a 120 -foot banner with the image of a refugee. This has had outings in countries such as Ukraine, Rwanda and Colombia, and the works on display are aerial photographs mounted with such scenes. For Children of Ouranos, JR transfers negatives on wood, then strengthens color contrast with black ink – effects that make children as spiritual appearances. Most of the parts are unique, with prices ranging from € 36,000 to € 88,000.
Panzo says that the two photographs (which tend to sell for less than the paintings) and “his work rooted in long -term social commitment and the participation of the public” has probably put a ceiling on the prices of the work of JR, while Perrotin says that the relative shortage of the auctions is an indication of his faithful collector. Buyers included the late actor Robin Williams, who bought a photo at JR 2007 Face 2 Project, which stuck portraits on the Bethlehem separation wall of the Israelis and the Palestinians making the same jobs. The photo of Williams, which shows three nuns helping to set an image of a laughing ecclesiastics, was sold in 2018 for $ 60,000, part of a charity sale from the Robin and Marsha Williams collection.
Perrotin explains that commercial works are more than documentary recordings of the main events, with photographs and films that are a lot of each project, sometimes the final objective. “JR's work in the street is spectacular, but just for a short time. It's ephemeral. His gallery practice is what remains.
March 14 to May 3, Perrotin.com
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