Jon Rafman
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 (Montreal)[1] and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.[2] He is widely known for exhibiting found images from Google Street View in his online artwork 9-Eyes (2009-ongoing).[3][4]
Biography[edit]
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. He lives in Montreal.
Career[edit]
Jon Rafman's oeuvre has been situated within the Post-Internet art movement.[18] He has risen to acclaim with his project Nine Eyes of Google Street View,[19][10][20] which developed a distinctly post-internet approach to photography.[18] His work has been included in numerous prestigious international biennials, including the 58th Venice Biennale,[21] 13th Lyon Biennale,[22] 9th Berlin Biennale,[23] and Manifesta 11.[24]
In 2015, the City of Montreal and the Contemporary Art Galleries Association awarded Rafman the Prix-Pierre-Ayot prize for emerging artists.[25] Rafman represented Quebec twice as a finalist in the competition for the 2015 and 2018 Sobey Art Award.[26][27] In 2018, Parisian fashion house Balenciaga commissioned Rafman to create an immersive LED tunnel for their Spring-Summer 2019 show.[28][29] Rafman is represented by art galleries Sprüth Magers (Berlin, Los Angeles, London) and Seventeen (London).[30]
Among public collections holding examples of his work are The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the MAXXI in Rome, National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and others.
In July 2020, accusations of sexual misconduct were leveled against Rafman on the instagram account @surviving_the_artworld and reported by the Montreal Gazette.[31][32] Jon Rafman successfully sued the Gazette for defamation. The stories were removed from the site, with the newspaper apologizing to the artist for not giving "equal time or space to Mr. Rafman to refute the claims against which he had evidence".[33]At the time, the Hirshhorn Museum suspended a planned Rafman exhibit and his Montreal gallery broke off its relationship with him.[34][35][36]
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).[37]
In January 2023, rapper Lil Yachty released his critically acclaimed album Let's Start Here with Rafman's artwork on the cover.[38] In July 2023, Rafman contributed artwork to rapper Travis Scott's highly anticipated album, Utopia.[39] In January 2024, Kanye West posted a trailer to Instagram with the caption "VULTURES TRAILER BY JON RAFMAN" for his upcoming collaborative album with Ty Dolla Sign, Vultures.