Jon Rafman (*1981) is acclaimed for a multifaceted oeuvre that encompasses video, animation, photography, sculpture and installation. His quasi-anthropological works—often incorporating internet-sourced images and narrative material—investigate digital technologies and the communities they create, focusing on the losses, longings and fantasies that shape our technology-infused lives today. The Montreal-based artist turns an empathic but critical eye on the internet age, investigating experiences of alienation, nostalgia, loneliness and grief.
Jon Rafman, Main Stream Media Network, 2025
© Jon Rafman
© Jon Rafman
Jon Rafman
Main Stream Media
K21 – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Through September 27, 2026
Jon Rafman is one of the most significant artists exploring the digital age, and this exhibition at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the artist's first solo exhibition in a German museum. Through immersive, room-filling installations, it provides an overview of Rafman’s work since 2008. In addition to his early works, the exhibition features later pieces such as the feature-length video Dream Journal 2016–2019 (2019), which was shown at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. Rafman’s latest work, Main Stream Media Network (2025), evokes the culturally influential MTV of the 1980s with music videos produced using AI software as well as experimental animations. Through his videos, films, and immersive installations, he examines how digital culture reshapes desire, identity, and experience.
Learn more
