Jon Rafman

May 30 – September 27, 2026

  • Jon Rafman, Main Stream Media Network, 2025, Video still, Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers, Berlin / London / Los Angeles / New York

Jon Rafman (b. 1981, in Montreal) has been considered a pioneering artist of the digital age since the 2010s. Euphoric and critical at the same time, he uses the possibilities of the internet and its exuberant computer-based visual language for his videos and films. Through his engagement with music, pop culture, fashion, and design, Rafman continuously experiments with and develops new imaging techniques. The exhibition at K21 will feature Rafman’s latest experiments with artificial intelligence (AI) in a museum setting for the first time. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in a German museum, presenting an overview of his work since 2008, including Nine Eyes of Google Street View (2008–ongoing), Kool Aid Man in Second Life (2008–11), and Dream Journal (2019). The exhibition will focus on his current project, Mainstream Media Network, which includes a music television channel currently in development that uses AI models to revive the historic MTV of the 1980s. The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive lecture and education program focusing particularly on media literacy for young people. A monographic publication will also be released.


 

The exhibition is sponsored by the Friends of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and is supported by the Karen and Uwe Hollweg Stiftung and LEAP Foundation. 

  • Supported by

  • Logo der Freunde der Kunstsammlung
  • Media partner

  • Logo des Monopol-Magazins
  • Logo der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung
  • The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is supported by

  • Logo des Ministeriums für Kultur und Wissenschaft in Nordrhein-Westfalen