Alfredo Jaar was born in Santiago, Chile in 1956. He studied architecture and filmmaking at the Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano de Cultura (1979), and Universidad de Chile, Santiago (1981).

Select solo exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum, New York (1989); Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1991); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2005); and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2014). A major retrospective of his work took place in 2012 in Berlin at NGBK and Alte Nationalgalerie. His work has been included in the Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009 and 2013, the last time as Chile’s representative); São Paulo Biennial (1985, 1987, and 2010); Istanbul Biennial (1995); and Gwangju Biennial (1995 and 2000). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2000 and Chile’s Premio Nacional de Arte in 2013.

Jaar lives and works in New York.