Visual Arts Open Lecture: Jon Rafman

Visual Artist Jon Rafman sits with his hands on a filthy desktop and keyboard covered in fast-food items.

Image courtesy the artist.

The Visual Arts Lecture Series presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators and academics. Join Jon Rafman, faculty for the Digital Promises program, for this talk.

Jon Rafman was born in 1981 in Montreal, Canada. He studied Philosophy and Literature at McGill University in Montreal and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work explores the impact of technology on contemporary consciousness, incorporating the rich vocabulary of virtual worlds to create poetic narratives that critically engage with the present. 
  
Rafman's recent solo exhibitions include Dream Journal 16' - 17', Sprueth Magers Berlin (2017), I Have Ten Thousand Compound Eyes and Each is Named Suffering, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2016), Westfälischer Kunstverein, Munster (2016), Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal (2015), and The Zabludowicz Collection, London (2015). His works have been featured in prominent international group exhibitions, including Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal (2017), K11 Art Shanghai (2017), Suspended Animation, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse (2017), Sharjah Biennial (2017), Berlin Biennial 9 (2016), Manifesta Biennial for European Art 11 (2016), The Future of Memory, Kunsthalle Wien (2015), Speculations on Anonymous Materials, Fridericianum, Kassel (2015), and Biennale de Lyon (2015). He recently created video for a production of Albert Ginastera’s opera Bomarzo at the Teatro Real, Madrid (2017).