Zack Rafuls is an artist currently residing in Queens NY. Born in Miami FL in 1992, some of his earliest accomplishments include being named "Most Improved" at the Jane Forman Tennis Academy Summer Camp (after weeks earlier biting another camper), winning the 5th grade Spelling Bee at Jack D. Gordon Elementary School (only to lose in the first round of the regional competition), and receiving the “Best Hair” superlative as a high school senior at Chattanooga Center for Creative Arts (he subsequently shaved his head).
Since then, he received his BFA from Watkins College of Art in Nashville TN (2015), during which time he also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a participant in the AICAD Mobility Program (2014). An interest in collaboration and community led him to found and co-curate mild climate, an artist-run space in Nashville TN, presenting monthly exhibitions from 2015 to 2018. Recent solo exhibitions include Electric Shed, Nashville TN (2021) and Marvin Gardens, Queens NY (2022). Over the last few years, he has been one half of two-person exhibits at Vessel City, Cleveland OH (2025); Usable Space, Milwaukee WI (2022); Family Exhibitions, Montreal QBC (2020); and Marvin Gardens, Queens NY (2019); in addition to participating in various group shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, and New York. Residency experience includes Stove Works, Chattanooga TN (2021) and Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock NY (2022).
These days Rafuls works out of a studio in Ridgewood, Queens that he shares with his two studio mates: his partner, artist Tristan Higginbotham, and their beagle Kylee.