TED Prize Goes to J R, Who Gives Slums a Human Face – NYTimes.com

Award to Artist Who Gives Slums a Human Face

The TED prize for 2011 will go to J R, who plasters colossal photos in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/arts/design/20ted.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

the TED conference, the California lecture series named for its roots in technology, entertainment and design, said on Tuesday that it planned to give its annual $100,000 prize for 2011 — awarded in the past to figures like Bill Clinton, Bono and the biologist E. O. Wilson — to the Parisian street artist known as J R, a shadowy figure who has made a name for himself by plastering colossal photographs in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world. The images usually extol local residents, to whom he has become a Robin Hood-like hero.