Statement:

I work with materials that are thin, fragile, and fluid—translucent gampi paper, viscous inks, liquid porcelain. To me, there is a truth in these transient qualities that applies to all things. Everything is in flux; everything has some degree of transparency, no matter how solid or permanent it appears. Engaging with these qualities offers a way of experiencing the world where things are lighter and more malleable, and where perceptions, materials, and forms are provisional and temporary.

Specifically, I use a wet-on-wet inkjet printing technique, dampening the paper before running it through the printer. I’ve found that the printer has the lightest of all touches, applying the thinnest layers of ink technically possible. The dampened paper allows the ink to spread in a semi-controlled way that is simultaneously precise and unpredictable. The paper itself is not passive—it absorbs, resists, and transforms the ink. Light, space, humidity, and gravity all become active forces, shaping the final object as much as the ink itself. The printer conceals the effort behind the image, leaving no visible trace of the process—only the immediacy of its presence.

The result is a surface that hovers between presence and absence, image and material. It is something both to be looked at and looked through. This experience of looking through, in all its implications, is central to my work—where perception is not just about recognition but about the shifting interplay between what is seen, what is felt, and what is imagined.

Bio:

Julian Harake is an artist and architect based in Santa Barbara, California, and Bozeman, Montana.

He has taught at Barnard College, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Montana State University, Syracuse University, and Parsons School of Design. His writings have been featured in The Montecito Journal, LUM Art Magazine, Dispatches Magazine, the New York Review of Architecture, and several published books.

In 2020, Julian managed the design and installation of Geoscope 2 with Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture, which was exhibited in the Central Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He also led the curation and design of three exhibitions with RUR—Weaponized Craft at a83 gallery (2022), Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center at Cooper Union’s School of Architecture (2022), and Building Beyond Place at ETAY Gallery / TAAC Tribeca (2019), all held in New York City

Julian received his B.A. from UC Berkeley in 2013 and M.Arch from Princeton University in 2016, where he was awarded the Suzanne Kolarik Underwood Thesis Prize. He currently teaches at Montana State University’s School of Architecture.