Prof. Dr. İlker Yardımcı is a sculptor, designer and academic whose practice centres on sculpture for public space. A graduate of the Department of Sculpture at Dokuz Eylül University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, he went on to complete his master’s degree (2007) at the same university’s Institute of Fine Arts with the thesis “The Place of Metal Material in Modern Sculpture and Its Possibilities of Expression”, and his Proficiency in Art (2011) with “The Confusion of the Prism: A Public Space Sculpture Application within the Scope of the Beijing Olympics”.

Yardımcı is a professor in the Department of Sculpture at Düzce University’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, where he served as Head of the Department of Sculpture from 2013 to 2022 and as Vice Dean from 2015 to 2022. He teaches sculpture in the urban environment, digital sculpture and computer-aided sculpture design, and supervises postgraduate theses.

In Yardımcı’s sculpture, fundamental geometries such as the sphere, prism, ellipse and cube become carriers of abstract narratives built on movement, balance and rhythm. The intervals left between the steel plates allow light, time and the viewer’s gaze to seep into the work; void is not the opposite of form but the very element that brings it into being. The viewer does not simply look at the sculpture, but completes it by walking around it. By combining computer-aided modelling and 3D printing with traditional metal craftsmanship, the artist extends the technical and conceptual boundaries of contemporary sculpture.

“Confusion of Prism”, selected for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and “Lyrical Message”, one of 15 international sculptures selected for the Olympic Park of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, are among the works that define the artist’s position in international public art. His works stand in squares, parks and collections in Türkiye, China, the USA, Ukraine, Argentina, Taiwan, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, among them the Qingdao Expo 2014 Park, the Minqin SuWu Desert Sculpture Park, Hengshui, the Harbin International Floating Sculpture Park, Bila Tserkva (Ukraine) and Lucien Arkas Park in İzmir. In 2025, his steel sculpture “Sunrise in the East” was realised in Shanghai at the invitation of Aart and under its curatorship.

The exhibitions he has taken part in include the International Beijing Art Biennale (2012, 2017), the SOFA International Sculpture and Functional Art Fair (USA, 2010), the Lih Pao Biennial (Taiwan, 2014), the Esch-sur-Alzette European Capital of Culture Sculpture Exhibition (Luxembourg, 2022) and the Miyazaki International Airport Sculpture Exhibition (Japan, 2019). His awards include the Honorary Award of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, the Jury Award of the Lih Pao Foundation International Sculpture Biennial, Taiwan (2014), Second Prize at the Qingdao Horticultural EXPO Sculpture Competition (2014), the IV. Award at the International Chaco Sculpture Biennial, Argentina (2014), the II. Award of the Shanghai Minhang District People’s Government (2023) and the III. Award of the Shenzhen New Space Public Art Institute (2023).

For Yardımcı, the city is not a backdrop against which sculpture is placed, but a living stage that expands the meaning of form and touches collective memory. On this stage, sculpture is a lyrical message addressed to the city, to light and to people.