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, architect, and educator. He currently resides in Bozeman, Montana, where he is a Visiting Scholar at Montana State University’s School of Architecture.

Julian has previously taught at Barnard College, UC Berkeley, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and Parsons School of Design. His writings have been featured in The Montecito Journal, New York Review of Architecture, LUM Art Magazine, Dispatches, and several published books. He was a previous resident at Santa Barbara’s Center for Art, Science, and Technology and a Creatives Rebuild New York grant recipient. 

In 2020, Julian was the project manager for Geoscope 2 with Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture, which was exhibited in the Central Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He also managed 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.