jr’s California artworks collected at perrotin
The exhibition, Horizons, arrives at Perrotin‘s Los Angeles gallery this spring, presenting a group of public artworks across California created by JR. Opening March 12th and on view through April 25th, the show marks the French artist’s first solo exhibition with Perrotin in Los Angeles and gathers photographic works that span San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tehachapi, and the U.S.-Mexico border near Tecate.
The title reflects a recurring idea within JR’s practice. While a horizon suggests distance, it also depends on the perspective of the viewer. Throughout the selected works, perspective becomes both a visual device and a social question. Large-scale images shift the way a site is read, and turn familiar structures into places where people encounter one another in new ways.
JR, Giants, Death Valley, Billboard, Mars 5, 2017, 9:46 am, California, USA, 2017, image © JR, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
Portraits Across the Landscape
Many of JR’s works featured at Perrotin’s Los Angeles gallery began as portraits. The artist photographs individuals and communities before enlarging those images and placing them directly within the built environment. Walls, rooftops, and urban surfaces become stages for faces and gestures that bring human presence into view.
This approach appears throughout the exhibition in projects created across California. Architecture and landscape serve as frameworks for the images. Buildings hold monumental portraits. Infrastructure becomes part of the composition. The city itself participates in the artwork, carrying the expressions and stories of the people who live there.
JR, Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the border, General View, Tecate, Mexico – U.S.A., 2017, image © JR
The Border as a Shared Space
One of JR’s most recognizable projects on view at Perrotin is Kikito, created near the border between Mexico and the United States. The work presents the image of a toddler leaning over the border wall, his hands gripping the steel slats while he looks across the line separating two countries. The photograph originated after JR met the child’s family while searching for a site for the installation.
The scale of the portrait changes how the barrier is experienced. A structure associated with division becomes the support for a moment of curiosity. After installing the image, JR organized a picnic along the border, inviting people from both sides to gather around a tablecloth printed with a pair of eyes. Photographs taken from above show a temporary meeting place stretching across the wall, with people sharing food and conversation in the structure’s shadow. See designboom’s coverage here.
JR, The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles, Lovers on the roof, USA, 2012, image © JR, courtesy the artist and Perrotin
Faces on the City
The exhibition also revisits The Wrinkles of the City, JR’s long running series that places close-up portraits of elderly residents across urban architecture. In Los Angeles, the images appeared on rooftops and building facades throughout the city to transform streets into a network of monumental faces.
Seen from above or from across the street, these portraits extend across brick walls and industrial rooftops. A pair of eyes appears across an intersection. A face stretches along the edge of a building. Each photograph carries the presence of an individual while also contributing to a collective image of the city’s memory. In the context of Horizons, these works place human expression directly within the skyline. See designboom’s coverage here.
JR, Tehachapi Project, Tehachapi Correctional Institution, California, USA, 2019, image © JR
Collaboration in Tehachapi
Another major body of work included in the Perrotin exhibition comes from JR’s ongoing collaboration inside the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi. The project began after the artist received permission to meet with inmates and listen to their stories. Portraits created during those encounters later became part of collaborative installations produced inside the prison yard. See designboom’s coverage here.
project info:
name: Horizons
location: Los Angeles, California
dates: March 12th — April 25th, 2026
photography: © JR, courtesy the artist and Perrotin
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