2018 Sobey Art Award: Quebec - Jon Rafman
CBC Radio | Posted: January 29, 2019 4:34 PM | Last Updated: January 29, 2019
Jon Rafman is the 2018 Sobey Art Award Finalist representing Quebec
The work of Jon Rafman 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. His recent solo exhibitions include Dream Journal '16 – '17, Sprüth 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, UK (2015).
Born in Montreal, he studied Philosophy and Literature at McGill University and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Juror's Statement
Jean-François Bélisle on Jon Rafman
For the past ten years or so, Jon Rafman has led a new approach to contemporary art that is often categorized as Post-Internet. This approach takes the advent of the Internet as a starting point for important transformations in the ways in which human beings communicate and experience the world. In so doing, the artist raises important questions and highlights different virtual realities that are quietly shaping our everyday life. Rafman brings a remarkable level of research, conceptualization and creativity to his extremely varied artistic production. His video installations, photographs, online pieces, virtual realities, sculptures and immersive environments all tackle realities that could have otherwise been easily dismissed or marginalized, while their affects shape our world of tomorrow. Not unlike the content of his art, over the past decade, Rafman has steadily built a following that transgresses all type of geopolitical boundaries.