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