Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and documentary maker. After completing his studies in architecture, he moved to New York, where he developed a multidisciplinary artistic practice. His work—spanning installations, photography, films, and public interventions—examines humanitarian crises and inequalities between the Global North and South. Aware of contemporary media saturation and the limits of art in representing violence and suffering, Jaar delivers incisive critiques of power structures and global exploitation.
Recent solo exhibitions include: KINDL, Berlin (2024); Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2023); SESC Pompeia, São Paulo (2021); Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa (2020); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2017); KIASMA, Helsinki (2014); Rencontres d’Arles, France (2013); Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlinische Galerie, and Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst e.V., Berlin (2012); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2008); Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1995); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); Whitechapel Gallery, London (1992); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992).
Internationally exhibited, Jaar has participated in the Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), São Paulo Biennial (1987, 1989, 2010), and Documenta (Kassel, 1987, 2002). He has executed over sixty public interventions worldwide, and more than fifty monographs have been published on his work. Honors include: Guggenheim Fellowship (1985); MacArthur Fellowship (2000); Hiroshima Art Prize (2018); Hasselblad Award (2020); IV Albert Camus Mediterranean Prize (2024); Edward MacDowell Medal (2025, announced)
Important solo exhibitions include those at the New Musem, New York (1992); Whitechapel, London (1992); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1995); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005); and SESC Pompéia, São Paulo (2021). Major research into his work took place at the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lausanne (2007); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2008); Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlinische Galerie and Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst e.V., Berlin (2012); Rencontres d'Arles (2013); KIASMA, Helsinki (2014); and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2017).
Jaar has carried out more than sixty public interventions around the world. More than fifty monographic publications have been published on his work. His works are held in major collections, including: MASP, São Paulo; MoMA and Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Collection, London; LACMA and MOCA, Los Angeles; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm.