Installation view of “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Bruno Lopes)
There’s no guarantee that a photograph or print will capture the magnitude of a three-dimensional artwork, but JR: Through My Window is a happy exception. Now open at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, the exhibition showcases 36 lithographs of the French artist’s site-specific projects, ranging from optical illusions staged in Egypt to an ambitious takeover of New York’s Times Square.
No matter their scope or location, JR’s work contains a rare sense of humanity, relying heavily upon a surrounding population, landscape, and cultural context to create significance. JR: Through My Window offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s production process and the relationships implicit within it—what are the connections JR makes during his journeys, and how do they inform an artwork’s ultimate message? As Underdogs Gallery seems to suggest, that message is often: “Let’s dream together.” It’s an idea that JR also echoes, evidenced by audio testimonies that are accessible throughout the exhibition via dedicated QR codes.
In this particular exhibition, “dreaming together” manifests itself in several different ways. With Women Are Heroes, for instance, JR plastered portraits of women in cities, villages, and towns around the world, literally magnifying their presence in an effort to “underline women’s pivotal role in society.” The Wrinkles of the City is a similar intervention, visually connecting the faces of the elderly with “wrinkles” found in urban buildings. Both projects honor their subjects, and view built environments as living canvases.
Retour à la Caverne is an equally playful interpretation of city architecture. While undergoing renovation, the Opéra National de Paris invited JR to repurpose the scaffolding surrounding the Palais Garnier. He opted for a more romantic scene, depicting the iconic building with a gaping cavern tearing it apart at its center. Instead of being threatening, the cave is illuminated with a streaming light, a direct reference to Plato’s seminal Allegory of a Cave.
“The cave beckoned viewers to peer inside, invoking Plato’s allegory of a cave, a place where the exit leads to knowledge and an understanding of the world,” JR writes of the project.
This isn’t to say that JR doesn’t also consider political upheaval. Much of his practice meditates upon war, crime, sexual harassment, and climate change, as seen with series such as Déplacé•e•s, Tehachapi, and Migrants, among many others. Still, JR’s work maintains a level of optimism, proposing alternate futures in which unity is not only possible, but a reality.
“Boundaries are not necessarily where we think they are,” JR once remarked. This is the sentiment at the core of JR: Through My Window—art, the exhibition insists, can “cross all boundaries.”
JR: Through My Window is currently on view at Underdogs Gallery through April 19, 2025.
Now open at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, JR: Through My Window offers an intimate glimpse into the French artist’s creative process.
JR walking through his exhibition “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Chris Costa)
JR, “28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes,” action in Phnom Penh, Peng Panh, Cambodia, 2009.
Installation view of “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Chris Costa)
The exhibition gathers 36 lithographs of the artist’s site-specific projects, alongside audio testimonies available via dedicated QR codes.
Detail of the “Retour à la Caverne — Acte I” lithograph.
Installation view of “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Bruno Lopes)
JR, “Eye,” Estádio de Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil, 2020.
JR walking through his exhibition “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Chris Costa)
No matter its scope or location, JR’s art contains a rare sense of humanity, and this exhibition only proves that fact even further.
JR, “Giants, Rising Up,” Hong Kong, 2023.
Installation view of “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Chris Costa)
JR, “Trompe l’oeil, Greetings from Giza,” 2021.
Installation view of “JR: Through My Window” at Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo: Bruno Lopes)