I heard a joke once at an art opening featuring 3D printed art. It went something like this: “How do you know you are looking a piece of 3D printed art?” Answer: “Because everybody tells you.” It made me laugh first of all because it is true, people tend to be so excited about this medium that they just cannot resist buzzing about it. And secondly I laughed because in almost every case of 3D printed art I have seen, the fact that it was made using a 3D printer seemed to me to be irrelevant. Nothing about these works seemed to demand the technology. It could all have been done using some other means. Which begs the question: What is everybody buzzing about? 3D printers are just tools, no different in their nature than, say, projectors. I have never had someone walk up to me in a gallery, point to a drawing and say, “That was made using a projector.” But then again, I have never had anyone walk up to me and say, “That was made entirely by assistants while the artist was on vacation.” The point being, it does not matter. Once the idea for an artwork is formed and steps are taken to realize it, it does not make a difference whether the actual work is carried out by this machine or that machine, or this pair of hands or that pair of hands. The fact that a 3D printer was used to make art does not in any way validate the work—it is only one aspect of the experience, and usually the least important aspect at that. This, at least, is my opinion. So when I was asked to write about artists who are redefining 3D printed art, I adopted the perspective that I should feature artists who have interesting ideas and are making work I would like to talk about regardless of how the work is getting made. So with that caveat made, here are seven artists using 3D printing technology to make their work who are, through the strength of their ideas, redefining the place of this new tool in contemporary aesthetics.

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