Jon Rafman makes environments, films, photographs and sculptures that examine the blurring of the real and virtual. Much of his work focuses on melancholy in modern social interactions, communities and virtual realities (including Google Earth, Google Street View and Second Life), while still bringing light to the beauty of them in a manner sometimes inspired by Romanticism. His videos and art works utilize personal moments intended to reveal how pop culture ephemera and subcultures shape individual desires, and will often define those individuals in return. His work is made from a composite of materials, including video footage, images, texts and quotes that he encounters in his extensive internet research. Occasionally shocking and always engaging, his works force the viewer to enter into uncomfortable and unsettling psychological realms.
Rafman was born in Montreal, Canada. He holds an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature from McGill University.
2017 - 2018 Dream Journals 16 - 17, Sprüth Magers, Berlin
2016 I have ten thousand compound eyes and each is named suffering, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2016 Jon Rafman, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
2016 Jon Rafman, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm
2015 Jon Rafman, Zabludowicz Collection, London
2015 Jon Rafman, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal
2015 Grand Tour, Feuer/Mesler, New York
2014 The End of the End of the End, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO
2014 Jon Rafman: Mainsqueeze, Plymouth Rock, Zurich
2014 Hope Springs Eternal, galerie antoine ertaskiran, Toronto
2014 Hope Springs Eternal II, galerie antoine ertaskiran, Montréal
2013 Annals of Lost Time, Future Gallery, Berlin
2013 Remember Carthage, New Online Art, New Museum, NY
2013 Remember Carthage, galerie antoine ertaskiran, Montréal
2013 You Are Standing in An Open Field, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York
2013 A Man Digging, Seventeen Gallery, London
2012 Jon Rafman, online exhibition, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2012 The Nine Eyes of Google Street View, Saatchi Gallery, London
2012 Mirror Sites, International Art Object Galleries and M+B Gallery, Los Angeles
2012 Nine Eyes of Google Street View, Angell Gallery, Toronto
2012 MMXII BNPJ, American Medium, New York
2011 Brand New Paint Job Extended, PM Gallery, Berlin
2011 Brand New Paint Job, Fabio Paris Gallery, Brescia
2010 The Age Demanded, Golden Age, Chicago, IL
2018 Alone together, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal
2018 Blind Faith: Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen Intuition und Reflexion, Haus der Kunst, Munich
2018 Our Thing, galerie antoine eraskiran, Montréal
2018 Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, ICA – The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Boston, MA
2017 ARS 17: Hello world!, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
2017 Unquestionable Optimism, Johannes Vogt, The Barn Show, East Hampton, New York
2017 Dream Machines, James Cohan Gallery, Chelsea, New York,
2017 New Scenario, HOPE, Altana Galerie, Dresden, newscenario.net
2017 Sharjah Biennial 13, Tamawuj, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
2017 Jon Rafman / Stan Vanderbeek, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles
2016 Under Arms. Fire & Forget 2, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main
2016 Omul Negru, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2016 Summer Triangle, OCAT Shenzhen, China
2016 Public, Private, Secret, ICP Museum, New York
2016 Posthumous Lives, Mitchell Anderson - Jon Rafman, Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland Manifesta 11, Zurich
2016 Frieze NY with Seventeen Gallery, New York
2016 Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver
2016 9th Berlin Biennale, Berlin
2016 Dreaming Mirrors, Dreaming Screens, Sprüth Magers, Berlin
