Alfredo Jaar Chilean, 1956- Born in Santiago, Alfredo Jaar is recognized for his conceptual and political investigations of documentary images and their cultural reception and/or repression. Before moving to New York in 1982, he received degrees in filmmaking from the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano de Cultura (1979) and in architecture from the Universidad de Chile, Santiago (1981). His installations often combine his photographs with maps or texts. Although many of his images are from developing countries, they refer not simply to topical issues of poverty or oppression, but instead evoke broader themes of the human condition. His conflation of life's reality and romanticism suggests that art may offer some transcendence over tyranny. Jaar's work has been widely exhibited, including one-person shows at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (1990) and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992). Among his awards are fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1987). He lives in New York. A.W.