Josh Harker--3D Printing

Crania Somothrace, Josh Harker

It takes one Burning Man, some steampunk, and one pioneering artist to set new limits of what it means to be one of the best 3D printing designers in the world. As an instigator of the #1 most funded sculpture project in the history of Kickstarter, Joshua Harker is the proud owner of this title that comes with the artistic ownership of an impressive high-tech skull sculpture located in the fields of the uber-cool festival, and, at the same time, an aggressive evidence of the possibilities of art in tech.

 

MIT Lotusbrain, Josh Harker

For artistic explorers, the time of 3D printing is ripe with potential. By accumulating more than a 20-year experience in the area, Josh Harker has been immersed in exploring the skills with the idea of letting the world know just how tangible 3D sculptures can be. His groundbreaking tech art is a way of showing how 3D printing work can be subtle and sublime as a technology, yet aggressive and complex in the message.

 

3-D printing artist, Josh Harker

Harker was born in 1970, an apt time for growing up in a post-hippy childhood, learning software and testing the mix of a formal art education with individual learning dedicated to materials engineering and 3D tech. His formal education includes the Kansas City Art Institute, the School of Representational Art in Chicago, the Evanston Art Center and Northwestern University, as well as several other prominent art schools in the country. As a lecturer, advisor and consultant, Josh Harker has been active for more than 25 years on a worldwide level, including teaching and speaking events in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Paris, London and Vancouver, BC. He authored more than 60 exhibitions and a dozen public art and large-scale installations, including the one in Black Rock City for the 2017 Burning Man.

3-D Transcendental Permutation or not, it's
something you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

The Tangle collection is a culmination of the public recognition for his efforts invested during a quarter of a century of testing the possibilities of 3D printers. He was learning software and fabricating filigree-fit materials that can be turned into the amazing world of 3D sculptures glowing in full glory only at a place such as the Burning Man--full of three-dimensional skulls, buffalo horns, desert winds and eagle wings.

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Some of Harker's best works.

Joshua started his landmark skull sculpture work with a Kickstarter campaign, proving that he is not only a talented sculptor, but also a motivated entrepreneur. Having a good start in the tech industry in the nineties, where he was surrounded by innovative tech companies helped Josh make the decisive move toward experimenting with 3D printing. While he was enjoying the CEO position as late as 2008, the fascination with art took over and he turned to 3D printed sculptures. You can find more about Josh Harker final transitioning process from business to art in the video below:
 

Making the Unmakeable - The 3D Industrial Revolution: Joshua Harker at TedX Binghamton University

Digital sculpting enables complex dimensionality, one that can not be attained with traditional methods. Nowhere else can an artist work with dynamic 2D and 3D media, using image mapping and sculpture animation to bring the fourth dimension of time, as he can in 3D sculptures. And he is right--the journeying with static and kinetic sculptures that change over time offers unique stories to the captivated audience.

 



Mazzo di Fiori 16, Josh Harker

The experiential installations of this visionary sculptor go way over 3D printing basics and well into radical contemporary art, with a hint of abstract new-surrealism. The discernible filigree twists are combined with the experience collected with his beginnings in 2D automation and resemble (in his own words) the work of ”André Masson and practiced notably by Miró, Breton, Dalí, Arp, and Picasso.” The depth of his work is not only due to the lyrical aesthetics of the printed filigree and the homage to the great masters of painting, but also due to the one-of-a-kind polarity provided by the wireframe construction and the dynamics of time.

 

Serpente Anatomica, Josh Harker

Josh Harker is, without doubt, an artist of the future. There is nothing like a personal artist’s statement to tell the story of his revolutionary tech art. In Josh’s own words, this is his vision:

 

 “Bolstered by the advent of organic modeling software, 3D printing technologies and material engineering, my visions are now able to be realized sculpturally in archival materials. Never before have forms of this organic complexity been able to be created. This boon of technology is a revolutionary time for the arts and one which will be boldly marked in history. I am honored to be considered one the pioneers in the medium.”

Quixotic Divinity Headdress
 --3D printed polyamide, Josh Harker



Till Death Do Us Part,
Josh Harker