Jon Rafman (born 1981) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, and essayist. His work centers around the emotional, social and existential impact of technology on contemporary life. His artwork has gained international attention and was exhibited in 2015 at

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...

(Montreal) and

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

. He is widely known for exhibiting found images from

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

in his online artwork ''9-Eyes'' (2009-ongoing).

Biography

Rafman was born in Montreal, Canada. He holds an M.F.A. from

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum a ...

and a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. He lives in Montreal.

Work

Rafman's work focuses on technology and digital media, often using narrative to emphasize the ways in which they connect users back to society and history. Much of his work focuses on melancholy in modern social interactions, communities and virtual realities (primarily

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

and

Second Life ''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...

), while still bringing light to the beauty of them in a manner sometimes inspired by

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. His videos and art utilize personal moments intended to reveal how pop culture ephemera and subcultures shape individual desires, and will often define those individuals in return.

Kool-Aid Man in Second Life

Rafman's ''Kool-Aid Man in Second Life'' project consists of films and participatory tours around the virtual universe of Second Life, which is hosted by his avatar, a 3D render of the Kool-Aid Man. Rafman conducted these tours live, inviting audience members to take part in the exploration of the virtual world as he guided and contextualized the experience Kool-Aid Man in Second life is a quasi-ethnographic tour of the wildly varied fantasies invented and pursued by denizens of the web's murkier corners. Rafman describes this project as an exploration of new communities that formed as the internet became a ubiquitous aspect of modern life.

Nine Eyes of Google Street View

In 2008, Rafman started Nine Eyes of Google Street View, a long-term archival photo project which uses screenshots of

images as its source. These images from across the world are arranged in a massive database and published in books, o
blogs
and as prints for his various exhibitions. Rafman later began to keep an ongoing

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

blog where he would post his Google Street View images.

''Dream Journal''

In 2016, Rafman's animated feature-length film ''Dream Journal'' premiered at the

Sprüth Magers Sprüth Magers is a commercial art gallery owned by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, with spaces in London, Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York, and offices in Cologne, Hong Kong, and Seoul. The gallery represents over sixty artists and estat ...

gallery in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Inspired by Rafman's habit of recording and animating his dreams, the film through a series of dream episodes explores the effects that technology and the internet have on the human psyche. Rafman has called the process of working on the film a form of "worldbuilding" with the desire to create a Boschian-like vision of our current hellscape.

cloudyheart

In 2024, Jon Rafman introduce
c''loudyheart''
one of the first AI-driven musical artist in history. Rafman revealed this project on X (formerly Twitter).

Career

Jon Rafman's oeuvre has been situated within the

Post-Internet Post-Internet is a 21st-century art movement involving works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society. Definition Post-Internet is a loosely-defined term that was coined by artist/curator Marisa Olson ...

art movement. He has risen to acclaim with his project Nine Eyes of Google Street View, which developed a distinctly post-internet approach to photography. His work has been included in numerous prestigious international biennials, including the 58th Venice Biennale, 13th Lyon Biennale, 9th Berlin Biennale, and Manifesta 11. In September 2013, Rafman collaborated with Brooklyn-based experimental musician Daniel Lopatin, better known by his stage name

Oneohtrix Point Never Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American Experimental music, experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer, and songwriter. His music has utilized wikt:trope, tropes from various ...

, on a music video for "Still Life" to accompany the release of '' R Plus Seven'' on

Warp Records Warp Records is a British independent record label that specialises in Electronic music, electronic, indie rock and experimental music. It was founded in Sheffield in 1989 by Steve Beckett, Robert Mitchell and Robert Gordon. It has released recor ...

. The two later collaborated to create a two-part music video for "Sticky Drama", from Lopatin's 2015 album '' Garden of Delete''. In 2015, the

City of Montreal Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

and the Contemporary Art Galleries Association awarded Rafman the Prix-Pierre-Ayot prize for emerging artists. Rafman represented

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

twice as a finalist in the competition for the 2015 and 2018

Sobey Art Award The Sobey Art Award is Canada's largest prize for young Canadian artists. It is named after Canadian businessperson and art collector Frank H. Sobey, who established The Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist 40 and under w ...

. In 2018, Parisian fashion house

Balenciaga Balenciaga SA ( , , ) is a Spanish Basque luxury fashion house currently headquartered in Paris. It designs, manufactures and markets ready-to-wear footwear, handbags, and accessories, and licenses its name and branding to the American cosmeti ...

commissioned Rafman to create an immersive LED tunnel for their Spring-Summer 2019 show. Rafman is represented by art galleries

(Berlin, Los Angeles, London) and Seventeen (London). Among public collections holding examples of his work are

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

in New York City, the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam, the

MAXXI MAXXI (, 'national museum of 21st-century arts') is a national museum of contemporary art and architecture in the Flaminio neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The museum is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The buildi ...

in Rome,

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

in Ottawa,

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

in Stockholm, and others. In July 2020, Rafman was accused by three women of alleged sexual misconduct in posts made to the Instagram account @surviving_the_artworld. These accusations were reported by the Montreal Gazette. Jon Rafman sued the Gazette and journalist T’cha Dunlevy for defamation. Under a settlement the stories were removed from the site, with the Gazette stating that they had not given "equal time or space to Mr. Rafman to refute the claims against which he had evidence". At the time, the Hirshhorn Museum suspended a planned Rafman exhibit and his Montreal gallery broke off its relationship with him. In February 2022, Jon Rafman's film ''Punctured Sky'' (2021) won the KNF (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists) prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). In January 2023, rapper

Lil Yachty Miles Parks McCollum (born August 23, 1997), known professionally as Lil Yachty, is an American rapper. He first gained recognition in August 2015 for his viral hit "One Night (Lil Yachty song), One Night", the lead single from his debut extend ...

released his critically acclaimed album ''

Let's Start Here ''Let's Start Here'' is the fifth studio album by the American rapper Lil Yachty, released on January 27, 2023, through Motown and Quality Control Music. The album was recorded over the course of six months between 2021 and 2022, with sessions ...

'' with Rafman's artwork on the cover. In July 2023, Rafman contributed artwork to rapper

Travis Scott Jacques Bermon Webster III (born April 30, 1991), known professionally as Travis Scott (formerly stylized as Travi$ Scott), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Scott has had five number-one hits on the U.S. ''Bil ...

's highly anticipated album, ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

''. In January 2024,

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

posted a trailer to Instagram with the caption "VULTURES TRAILER BY JON RAFMAN" for his collaborative album with

Ty Dolla Sign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Griffin gai ...

, '' Vultures''. In January 2025, Jon Rafman created the first A.I. pop sta
Cl0udyH3art
and with her own "memecoin" on Solana blockchain
cloudy
Her music can be found on Spotify
Cloudy Heart Spotify

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''You Are Standing in an Open Field,''

Zach Feuer Gallery The Zach Feuer Gallery was a contemporary art gallery that operated from 2000 to 2016 in New York City; Hudson, New York; and Los Angeles. History Zach Feuer Gallery was founded in 2000 as the LFL Gallery by Nick Lawrence, Russell LaMontagne an ...

New York, September 2013 *''A Man Digging'', Seventeen Gallery, London, May 2013 *''Annals of Time Lost'', Future Gallery, Berlin, April 2013 *''Jon Rafman'', Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, June 2015 *''I have ten thousand compound eyes and each is named suffering'', Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, May 2016 *''Jon Rafman'', Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden, 2016 *''Il Viaggiatore Mentale'', Palazzina dei Giardini, Modena, September 2018 *''Dream Journal'', Oval Office, Bochum, September 2021 *''You, the World, and I'', La Casa Encendida, Madrid, October 2021 *''Arbiter of Worlds'', Ordet, Milan, February 2022 *''Egregores and Grimoires'', Schinkel Pavillion, Berlin, September 2022 *''Counterfit Poast'', Sprueth Magers, Berlin, September 2022 *''Minor Daemon'', 180 Strand, London, January 2023 *''𝐸𝒷𝓇𝒶𝒽 𝒦'𝒹𝒶𝒷𝓇𝒾'', Sprueth Magers, London, January 2023 *''¡ʎʇıuɐɯnH ǝɥʇ 'ɥO'' Whangārei Art Museum, Whangārei, December-March 2024-2025

Group exhibitions

Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, , usually known as MACRO, is a municipal contemporary art museum in Rome, Italy. The museum is housed in two separate places: a former brewery in Via Nizza, in the Salario quartiere of the city; and a form ...

, 2010 *''Free'',

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

, New York, 2010 *''New Jpegs,'' Johan Berggren Gallery in Malmo, Sweden, 2011 *

The Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

, 2012 *

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

, 2012 *

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), is a museum and art gallery in Toronto, Ontario. It is an independent, registered charitable organization. ...

, 2012 *''Speculations on'' ''Anonymous Materials,'' The

Fridericianum The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe.

, Kassel, 2013 *''Summer Show'', Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden, 2017 *''Stockholm Dinner Sessions'', Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden, 2019 *''Malmö Sessions'', Carl Kostyál, Malmö, Sweden, 2019 *

Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d'Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d'Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian ...

* Ticket to the Future,

Kunstmuseum Bonn The Kunstmuseum Bonn or Bonn Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Bonn, Germany, founded in 1947. The Kunstmuseum exhibits both temporary exhibitions and its collection. Its collection is focused on Rhenish Expressionism and post-war German ...

, Bonn, 2021 * What Wonderful World,

museum, Rome, 2022

Publications with contributions by Rafman

*''Communicating the Archive: Physical Migration.'' Regional State Archives in Gothenburg. Rafman's work was included, as was an essay by Sandra Rafman, on the archival impulses of Rafman's work.Karl-Magnus Johansson (2013), Communicating the Archive : Physical Migration, The Regional State Archives in Gothenburg.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafman, Jon 1981 births Living people Canadian digital artists Canadian contemporary artists Net.artists Artists from Montreal School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni McGill University alumni