TED honors artist that brings awareness to urban injustice

Some of JR's urban interventions 

I heard a lot of buzz about French artist JR when I was living in Brazil last year. The photo-graffiti artist, with the help of volunteers, had covered building façades in Rio's favelas with colossal portraits of favela residents--asserting a human face on some of the city's poorest neighborhood and forcing outsiders to actually take a look. It's nice to see that TED is recognizing the power of artistic practice -one that is grassroots, independent, and even, at times, illegal- to raise awareness of social justice issues. The award comes with $100,000 along with the opportunity for the winner to make a wish to change the world that the TED helps to support.

See JR's work on the TED website or read about the award in today's NY Times. JR's work calls to mind the more localized work of São Paulo graffiti artists and activists Jonato, Everaldo, and Paula whose work, Morro da Macumba, I featured on this blog.