ABOUT OUR FOUNDER, ARTIST JR
French artist JR, the Founder of the Can Art Change the World? Foundation, creates monumental public art projects that inspire passersby to ask questions and confront their own perceptions. After his first major project Portrait of a Generation (2004-06), which challenged stereotypes of Parisian suburban youth, he began working internationally. Whether it be pasting the faces of Israeli and Palestinian people on both sides of the Separation Wall (2007), the eyes of women on train cars in Kibera, Kenya (2009), or a giant toddler peeking over the US-Mexico border fence (2017), JR’s larger-than-life installations amplify the stories of everyday people and inspire dialogue. From creating a trompe-l’oeil at the Louvre with 400 volunteers (2019) to pasting alongside incarcerated men in a California maximum-security prison (2019-22), he seeks to involve everyone in the act of artistic creation, hoping to create conversations and drive social change.
In 2008, while creating his Women Are Heroes project in Brazil, JR developed deep relationships with the families of the Morro da Providência favela in Rio de Janeiro. As he neared the end of the project, he was eager to maintain creative connection with the community in a way that would outlast his pastings on the walls. With Brazilian photographer Maurício Hora, he founded Casa Amarela, a community center that offers educational, artistic and cultural activities as well as professional training courses all year round.
The desire to foster creative spaces that mobilize and strengthen communities was the impetus for founding Can Art Change the World? Foundation. In addition to Casa Amarela, the non-profit supports JR’s global art project Inside Out. Created in 2011, the participatory platform helps communities share their stories by displaying large-scale black-and-white portraits in public spaces. In the past fourteen years, over half a million people have participated in the project, with more than 2,700 installations created across 153 countries and territories.
Inspired by JR’s series of projects in the Tehachapi Maximum Security Prison which began 2019, and the Tehachapi documentary released by JR in 2024, a new program emerged for the Can Art Change the World? Foundation -- a Global Prison Art Program that uses educational and artistic programming to create opportunities for rehabilitation and healing for those in and connected to our world’s criminal legal system. As JR returned to Tehachapi year after year to create various installations, many of the original participants moved down a level of security, while others were released on parole - in part due to the good behavior exhibited when creating the pastings. Seeing the value and impact of collaborative art within prison, JR has been eager to continue creating artistic projects involving incarcerated populations in prisons around the world.
Always seeking to drive change, each of JR’s projects has the potential to grow into a social initiative. The Can Art Change the World? Foundation has also expanded the impact of JR’s work by supporting short-term artistic interventions that inspire action, promote healing, and nurture dialogue. Among these projects include, Women Are Heroes (Kenya, 2009), The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America (United States, 2018), and Déplacé·e·s, Valeriia- Can Art Change the War? (Ukraine, 2022).
