The Haas Brothers

The Haas Brothers, twins Nikolai and Simon (b. 1984; Austin, TX), investigate the slippery divide between art and design with humor, whimsy, and inventive originality. While the artists are best known for their riotously colorful biomorphic forms, genitalia-adorned furniture, and pun-infused titles, an intellectual, conceptual, formal, and technical rigor grounds their practice. Working in sculpture, design, film, fashion, and music—and often in the liminal space somewhere between these disciplines—the Haas Brothers strive to liberate their work, their viewers, and themselves from the constraints of repressive social conventions. Derived from the Haas Brothers’ ongoing Zoidberg series, their collection of lumpen bronze mirrors allow viewers to experience portals to another realm, willfully blurring the distinction between art and design. The duo have shown their work widely in the United States and abroad. Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami FL; and the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah, GA. The Haas Brothers’ work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.