Crystal Cork Art Quarterly No. 12 presents:
Joshua Harker : Tangles
Where: The Crystal Cork Wine Shoppe, 219 W. 1st Street, Dixon, IL
When: May 14, 2011 - August 8, 2011
Artist Reception: Saturday, May 14 , 2011, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
STATEMENT / BIOGRAPHY
Joshua was born in Iowa City, IA in 1970 and grew up along the Midwestern
Mississippi River valley. Declared a prodigy as a young child, he assumed the
identity of an artist from his earliest pursuits.
Joshua has worked as a commercial sculptor in the toy, invention and design,
special effects, and product development industries. In 1998, he founded the design
and development firm Paradigm Development Group & served as its president for
10 years. He currently works solely as a fine artist out of his home studio in Chicago
where he lives with his wife and daughter.
I am a sculptor, scribbler, musician, digital adventurer, imagination architect, and a
trouble maker. My work reveals a passion for the uninhibited and represents my
quest for originality in the most literal sense. Stemming from 2D linear automatism
explorations (pioneered by André Masson and practiced notably by Joan Miró,
André Breton, Jean Arp, and Pablo Picasso), I develop tangled shapes and images
to interpret and share forms evident in the mind's eye but that cannot otherwise be
described. My intent is to explore and give form to the architecture of the
imagination. By disengaging the conscious mind, I am able to examine esoteric
visions before they submit to a recognizable metaphor. I am then able to capture
and refine them into the forms I command offering the opportunity to study their
identity and structure.
Intentionally, viewers are invited to exercise their own translation of my work in much
the same way a Rorschach inkblot elicits various interpretations. The forms and
images become uniquely personal to the viewer through this psychological
dialogue. My art bears qualities of traditional and pop surrealism, tachisme abstract
expressionism, and is invariably contemporary. Influences include Salvador Dalí,
Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin, M.C. Escher, Ernst Haeckel, the organic mathematics
of the natural world, and the mayhem of popular culture.
Bolstered by the advent of sculptural software, 3D printing technologies and material
engineering, my visions are now able to be realized sculpturally in archival materials
including cast bronze and sintered glass/nylon. Never before have forms of this
organic complexity been able to be developed and reproduced. Previous
processes simply did not allow for it. I believe this boon of technology is a
revolutionary time for the arts and one, which will be boldly marked in history.
RESUME
WEBSITE
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Josh Harker
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| Brought to you by the people at The Crystal Cork Wine Shoppe, Trein's Jewelry, and Distinctive Gardens, working cooperatively to expand our area's strong community support for the arts. |
Artists
| "Permutation Prime", bronze sculpture by Joshua Harker |
