Born in Arizona and raised in Silicon Valley, Dev Harlan is self-taught, having developed a keen interest in experimental video subcultures at an early age, before taking occasional courses in computer science at UC Berkeley and drawing at UC Santa Cruz. It was video production that eventually led him to New York, where he began creating works in sculpture, 3D animation, and video projection mapping. His current practice, which incorporates sculpture, installation, and digital media, explores themes such as posthumanism, anthropogenic transformations, and technological consumption through the assembly of objects, video projection, and programming. He employs technology in a reflexive manner, using it to question his own assumptions and challenge the perceived boundary between human techno-culture and the natural world, drawing on ecocriticism and climate science to explore how deeply intertwined these two realms are. His projection works encourage an almost transcendental mode of viewing, conceived as a gateway to the imaginative subconscious: he likes to suggest the existence of fictional objects endowed with their own radiant power, allowing the viewer’s imagination to speculate on the object’s sublime cosmic origins. He draws inspiration from artists such as James Turrell and other figures of the Light and Space movement, who achieved the sublime through a minimalist and radical use of light; a tradition he continues today through an in-depth exploration of Earth sciences, which he recently studied at Columbia University.

Dev Harlan has exhibited in the United States and internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Christopher Henry Gallery and the Madison Park Gallery in New York, as well as group exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates, “Ideas City” at the New Museum, the SVA Flatiron Gallery, and, more recently, at Art Dubai and the Wrong Biennial. He has completed several notable public art commissions, including an installation at the Los Angeles Central Library and a work for Canon USA. A 2020 finalist for the NYFA Digital Media Arts Fellowship, he also won the Mozaik Artist Grant in 2022 and served as an artist-in-residence at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the SVA Sculpture & New Media Residency. His work has been featured in numerous publications and articles, including Rhizome, Wired News, The Creators Project, and Right Click Save.