Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1519563
Catherine D. Anspon: Take us back to the beginning. How did your Nasher show come about? Simon Haas: It started through our Austin gallery owner, Lora Reynolds, who was showing our work at the Dallas Art Fair in 2018. Niki Haas: She knew Jeremy Strick [Nasher Sculpture Center director], and then we all met; it was sort of easy. Lora set up that conversation and knew that we would like each other. Then we did a talk with Jeremy at the Nasher, as part of Dallas Art Fair in 2018. We had such good rapport, and I think we were surprised by how much we liked each other. We started putting down some designs, and then met Brooke [Hodge, independent curator], about three years ago, partway in, and she started organizing the show and tightening it up. We've been working on the "Moonlight" show for five years. CA: The Haas Brothers have had museum shows, but the Nasher is an international destination for sculpture. Is the bar higher? Simon: This is our biggest show ever. We grew up going to the Nasher because we grew up in Austin. This was a huge deal for us to have a show here. It's just a gorgeous museum. And the scale of what the Nasher has let us do is bigger than we've ever done. We have things out front, works in the back sculpture garden, and something inside, which is really cool. Niki: This is our biggest show for sure. And it's landing on the 15-year anniversary of the opening of our studio. So, it feels important in a lot of ways. The Nasher opened in our later high school years, in 2003. I remember that they commissioned Renzo Piano for the architecture and the level of culture that it brought to Texas. I remember going on a high school field trip to see it and being completely dumbfounded with how good the work was. It's cool to have seen it grow so much, and that we were at the front edge of our adult lives, leaning into this next venture of what we were going to do, and art and sculpture were vaguely available to us in terms of a potential career. It really does feel full circle. It's the biggest moment we've had in our career and it's a homecoming at the same time. The Nasher is a personal thing for us. CA: On the making of "Moonlight." Niki: The show is brand-new. None of it had been proven before we made it — it was really exhilarating for us to be working at such a scale, with a purpose, because sometimes we'll just make something huge to express ideas, PHOTO JESS SMITH/PHOTOSMITH On the eve of a career-defining exhibition, Nikolai and Simon Haas sat down in their North Hollywood studio for a Q&A about their upcoming solo, "Moonlight," at Nasher Sculpture Center. Via Zoom, the brothers — darlings of both the art and design worlds who are represented by powerhouse galleries Marianne Boesky, Jeffrey Deitch, and Lora Reynolds — open up about their Texas homecoming, the surprising role the Nasher played in their early lives, why creativity is in their DNA, and who played key roles in making their Nasher debut happen. As told to Catherine D. Anspon. BROTHERS Digital rendering of The Haas Brothers' The Strawberry Tree, 2023. HAAS 48