Haas Brothers

Experience the world of boundary-defying artist designers the Haas Brothers, Simon and Nikolai Haas, as they discuss their clever, imaginative, and fantasy-filled creations. Playful and at times irreverent, they explore aesthetic themes related to nature, science fiction, sexuality, and psychedelia. As their practice has developed, they moved from thinking about functionality first to ​“start[ing] with emotional content,” Simon stated. Their inventive use of materials ranges from copper, porcelain and fur, to technical resins and polyurethane. Since founding the Haas Brothers in 2010, twin brothers Nikolai and Simon have spurned arbitrary artistic boundaries and hierarchies, creating a playful and provocative world that merges art, fashion, film, music, and design. 

In 2013, The Haas Brothers began to collaborate with Monkeybiz, a South African women’s collective known for their beadwork and who also have branded themselves the Haas Sisters. The Haas Brothers have also established a partnership with a group of women from Lost Hills, California, a small agricultural town with limited employment opportunities for women to facilitate the opportunity for the women to learn beadwork skills and now employ them for their beadwork creations.

Their first solo museum show opened in Miami Beach at the Bass Museum of Art in 2019 and their work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. In 2019, they were the recipients of the Arison Award given by the YoungArts Foundation. Most recently, their exhibition, Constant Carnival: The Haas Brothers in Context, was on view at the Katonah Museum of Art in 2022. They are represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, and they live and work in Los Angeles.

With support from Design Core Detroit. Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.