Jon Rafman

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.

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

Jon Rafman's oeuvre has been situated within the Post-Internet art movement.^[17] He has risen to acclaim with his project Nine Eyes of Google Street View,^[18][8][19] which developed a distinctly post-internet approach to photography.^[17] His work has been included in numerous prestigious international biennials, including the 58th Venice Biennale,^[20] 13th Lyon Biennale,^[21] 9th Berlin Biennale,^[22] and Manifesta 11.^[23]

In September 2013, Rafman collaborated with Brooklyn-based experimental musician Daniel Lopatin, better known by his stage name Oneohtrix Point Never, on a music video for "Still Life" to accompany the release of R Plus Seven on Warp Records.^[24] The two later collaborated to create a two-part music video for "Sticky Drama", from Lopatin's 2015 album Garden of Delete.^[25]

In 2015, the City of Montreal and the Contemporary Art Galleries Association awarded Rafman the Prix-Pierre-Ayot prize for emerging artists.^[26] Rafman represented Quebec twice as a finalist in the competition for the 2015 and 2018 Sobey Art Award.^[27][28] In 2018, Parisian fashion house Balenciaga commissioned Rafman to create an immersive LED tunnel for their Spring-Summer 2019 show.^[29][30] Rafman is represented by art galleries Sprüth Magers (Berlin, Los Angeles, London) and Seventeen (London).^[31]

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, 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.^[32][33] 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".^[34] At the time, the Hirshhorn Museum suspended a planned Rafman exhibit and his Montreal gallery broke off its relationship with him.^[35][36][37]

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).^[38]

In January 2023, rapper Lil Yachty released his critically acclaimed album Let's Start Here with Rafman's artwork on the cover.^[39] In July 2023, Rafman contributed artwork to rapper Travis Scott's highly anticipated album, Utopia.^[40] In January 2024, Kanye West posted a trailer to Instagram with the caption "VULTURES TRAILER BY JON RAFMAN" for his collaborative album with Ty Dolla Sign, Vultures.

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

• 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.^[65]