Eshan Rafi (they/them)

Eshan Rafi (b. 1986, Lahore) is a Toronto/Tkaronto-based artist working across time-based, lens-based and choreographic practices. Their works deal with the intersection of political events and personal archives, often staging the impossibility of representation. An alum of the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, Lebanon, Rafi has participated in residencies at Fondazioni Antonio Ratti in Como, Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art in Berlin, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, among others. Their work has been presented internationally, including at Links Hall in Chicago, SummerWorks in Toronto, Sharjah Film Platform, M:ST 9 Performative Art Biennale in Calgary, and neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst in Berlin.

Rafi’s artistic practice rests on a history of community building in queer of colour communities, including working in collectives to develop decolonial and anti-capitalist pedagogies. They have participated in anti-surveillance and hacker spaces — such as the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and Chaos Computer Congress in Leipzig — informing their research into how information and images circulate. In 2025, Rafi was a danceWEB scholar at ImPulsTanz Vienna and is currently a 2025-26 artist-in-residence at LA SERRE in Montreal. Rafi holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Art, Theory, Practice from Northwestern University (2023) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Bachelor of Education degree in Visual Arts from York University (2013). @eshanraf (Instagram)