Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540685
Clockwise from top left: Haas Brothers' Freddy Fur-Curry, 2015, at Cranbrook Art Museum. Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley (Monacelli, October 2025). Nikolai Haas, Simon Haas, aka the Haas Brothers. A sexy new volume by Phaidon's Monacelli imprint, paired with an epic traveling retrospective, defines the fall season for Nikolai and Simon Haas. The creative world of the Texas-reared twin siblings known as the Haas Brothers intersects craft, design, art, and increasingly, t e c h n o l o g y . T h e y ' v e h a d a b a n n e r 1 8 months, begin- n i n g w i t h Nasher Sculpture C e n t e r 's M a y 2 0 2 4 s o l o , " M o o n l i g h t . " This month, the Haases step upon the national stage with "Uncanny Va l l e y, " t h e i r first mid-career museum survey — a two-year By Catherine D. Anspon touring exhibition organized by the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where it debuts November 2 before touching down at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, followed by the Blanton Museum of Art in the Haases' hometown, Austin. The tour wraps at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, in January 2028. The survey includes approximately 100 works spanning 1 5 y e a r s o f the L.A.-based brothers' clever and subversive output, executed in a dizzying array of media that are their c a l l i n g c a rd s : porcelain, hand- b l o w n g l a s s , marble, bronze, velvet, carved wood, Icelandic sheepskin, and 3 - D - p r i n t e d nylon. Surreal anthropomorphic furniture with cheeky titles is showcased along with coral- inspired Accretion ceramics, futuristic Endless Paintings employing high-tech digital codes, and biomorphic Zoid- series sculptures that channel a sci-fi hybrid of plant and animal kingdom. Tellingly, one of the most dazzling works in "Uncanny Valley" was originally crafted for the Haas Brothers' Nasher show: The Strawberry Tree, measuring 15 by 18 by 21 feet and formed from beads, bronze, glass, and stone. It took a crew of 50 artisans three years to bring to fruition, including women in a farming community in Lost Hills, California, who were tapped for the intricate beadwork formed from antique Murano glass. Niki Haas says of The Strawberry Tree, "It's sort of a dream object." "Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley," November 2, 2025 – F e b r u a r y 2 2 , 2026, at Cranbrook Art Museum, cranbrookartmuseum.org; September 13, 2026 – January 17, 2027, at Blanton Museum of Art, blantonmuseum.org. Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley (Monacelli, October 2025). COURTESY R & COMPANY. © HAAS BROTHERS. PHOTO BY JOE KRAMM. IAN FLANIGAN