In a meteoric rise to fame, the Los Angeles-based Haas Brothers have garnered international accolades for their set design and props for print and video, one-of-a-kind fashion works and their highly original furniture and object designs. Their exploration and mastery of materials--ranging from brass, bronze, porcelain and fur to highly technical resins and polyurethane--matched with their insatiable curiosity and remarkable visual intelligence, sets them apart as designers. This monograph--the first on the brothers--focuses on their projects, including their Hex series of handworked bronze tile pieces, their Accretion series of unique ceramic vessels, the Beast series of brass and wool anthropomorphic furniture and a new body of works that engages ideas about arousal and eroticism in playful, sculptural forms. The book features color photographs as well as writings and drawings by Simon and Nikolai Haas that convey their humor and eloquence while illuminating the inspirations, theories and processes behind the works, plus images of the Haas Brothers' studio and practice. Twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas (born 1984), known as The Haas Brothers, got their start in design by studying stone carving and construction under their father in their hometown of Austin, Texas. In September 2010, the brothers were commissioned to collaborate on a project by renowned architectural firm Johnston Marklee, at Sony Studios in Los Angeles, and "The Haas Brothers" as a studio practice was born. In the years since, the brothers have continued to grow their design studio and spend their time prototyping forms and experimenting with materials, surface textures and processes. In 2013 they created a limited-edition furniture collection for Versace. In their current design works, The Haas Brothers explore aesthetic and formal themes related to nature, science fiction, psychedelia and color theory.
Featured image is reproduced from The Haas Brothers.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Departures
David Keeps
In September the brothers' first monograph, The Haas Brothers (Damiani), which includes a contribution from Laura Dern, was published in anticipation of their first U.S solo show, opening at R & Company on November 4. There have been discussions of rug designs and a documentary about their lives by photographer Mason Poole. The grand plans are no accident; quirky as their work can be considered, the brothers are aiming for universal-not niche-appeal.
Cool Hunting
David Graver
companying their first ever solo NYC exhibition, "Cool World," debuting on 4 November 2014 at R & Company Gallery, they're releasing a stunning monograph entitled The Haas Brothers Volume 1. Their art, over 176 full color pages, is accompanied by a foreword from R & Company founders Evan Snyderman and Zesty Meyers and essays by actress Laura Dern and designer Berthold Haas.
Interview
Laura Dern
Just as their work finds a dreamlike harmony in asymmetry, the twins' working partnership also seems to be a symbiotic union of mutually beneficial and supplementary talents: Niki is the left brain and Simon the right, except when it's the other way around. And either way, the 30-year-old former musician (Niki) and th former painter (Simon), brothers of actor Lukas Haas, are really jamming now. As they prepared to release their first monograph, The Haas Brothers, out now from Damiani.
Surface Magazine
Spencer Bailey
The first monograph to be published on the work of Los Angeles-based twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas, The Haas Brothers: Volume One (Damiani) features color reproductions, process ephemera, and essays on their often anthropomorphic, eccentric, and curiously carnal oeuvre. Spanning one-of-a-kind fashion pieces, furniture, objets, and installations, works are presented by thematic sources of inspiration. One section, titled "Accretions," outlines the biological process as a method of ceramic-making. In another, the brothers-who cite provocateur Vincent Gallo as a mentor-proclaim, "As humanists, we feel that shame is one of the most counterproductive emotional states for development."
Modern Painters
Michael Slenske
In the past-two years, the Austin-born, Los Angeles-based twins have been commissioned to design the angel wings that Lady Gaga wore in a performance and a collection of one-of-a-kind furniture and a limited-edition clothing and accessories for Donatella Versace; they also signed to the white-hot design-focused New York gallery R & Company-the latter happening just hours after the Versace deal. They have also presented twice at Art Basel in Switzerland and will debut a massive solo show at R & Company November 4, which may well redefine how furniture is showna and perhaps made. They have managed all this while pioneering avant-garde science-and nature-based techniques in leather, ceramics, glass and various other media; releasing their first book (The Haas Brothers; Volume One because, well, they're just getting started)
New York Magazine
Wendy Goodman
Donatella Versace and Lady Gaga snatched up their work, Peter Marino had them create a ceiling for the Guerlain store in Paris , and Damiani gave them a book deal (The Haas Brothers is out now). At the root of their design partnership is a shared appreciation of the absurd. Thier new Accretions-sea-anemone-like-ceramic vases-were apprently inspired by "Ursula's grotto in "The Little Mermaid." They also feel strongly about advocating for the "sexual outsider" and often add explicit touches to their pieces
cfileonline.org
Garth Clark
The twins vision exists in a surreal organic and zoomorphic landscape that makes acid redundant, occupied by creatures of various kinds disguised as pots, sofas, tables and chairs. They are cute enough to approach but somehow a tad dangerous when one gets too close.
In their new design monograph from Damiani, the Haas Brothers write, "In the world of things that look like animals, there is a formal and emotional spectrum that runs from toy to taxidermy—one end being very generic and favoring attributes such as cuteness and the other end being very specific and favoring superficial realism. What strikes us as interesting when comparing these two is that between a stuffed animal which is extremely simplified and a stuffed animal that looks nearly lifelike, it is likely than any human who encounters the two will feel more affection for the generic version of the animal. The psychological mechanism behind this, which we equate to the concept of the "uncanny valley" in humanoid robotics, is instinctual and automatic. Our goal with our beasts, particularly because our use of real fur keeps us in constant flirtation with the valley, has been to understand and manipulate this emotional response. By simplifying some forms and enhancing others, adding humor, and playing with gesture, we have found that it is possible to imbue an inanimate object with not only a feeling of sentience, but with a distinct personality." Featured image, of "Ed Bel-fur" and "Bok Hudson" (both 2014), is reproduced from The Haas Brothers. continue to blog
"We have developed a vernacular in our work that favors humor, happiness and human impulse over the function and formalism that is typically associated with design—we want to create pieces that have enough emotional impact to feel more like they are living in their setting than serving a programmatic function there," the Haas Brothers write in their sexy and funny new monograph from Damiani. "Because our working methods and interests are decidedly different—Simon's are naturally closer to the classical and scientific while Niki's focus on the emotional and expressive—we have had the luxury of being complementary sounding boards for one another in every aspect of our lives, not least in our work together as the Haas Brothers. In the case of our beasts, our opposing approaches have helped us fine-tune what we consider to be the anthropomorphic ideal, balancing impulse and analysis in an effort to create an object for which one can feel empathy." Hairy Belafonte Dromedary (2013) is reproduced from The Haas Brothers, available at our bookstore at Design Miami. Tha Haas brothers will sign in our fair bookstore Thursday, December 4 at 1pm. continue to blog
In the current issue of Interview magazine, Laura Dern is quoted, "Just as their work finds a dreamlike harmony in asymmetry, the twins' working partnership also seems to be a symbiotic union of mutually beneficial and supplementary talents: Niki is the left brain and Simon the right, except when it's the other way around." Featured image is reproduced from their new monograph from Damiani.
continue to blog
Join us December 2-7 for talks & signings with Peter Marino, David Adjaye & Theaster Gates, Tom Kundig & James Olson, Drew Aaron, Richard Kauffman & Michele Oka Doner, The Haas Brothers, Marella Chia, and Lisa Roberts! Times and dates are listed below. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 8.75 x 11.5 in. / 176 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.5 ISBN: 9788862083737 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 10/31/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Damiani. Text by Laura Dern, Simon and Nikolai Haas.
In a meteoric rise to fame, the Los Angeles-based Haas Brothers have garnered international accolades for their set design and props for print and video, one-of-a-kind fashion works and their highly original furniture and object designs. Their exploration and mastery of materials--ranging from brass, bronze, porcelain and fur to highly technical resins and polyurethane--matched with their insatiable curiosity and remarkable visual intelligence, sets them apart as designers. This monograph--the first on the brothers--focuses on their projects, including their Hex series of handworked bronze tile pieces, their Accretion series of unique ceramic vessels, the Beast series of brass and wool anthropomorphic furniture and a new body of works that engages ideas about arousal and eroticism in playful, sculptural forms. The book features color photographs as well as writings and drawings by Simon and Nikolai Haas that convey their humor and eloquence while illuminating the inspirations, theories and processes behind the works, plus images of the Haas Brothers' studio and practice.
Twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas (born 1984), known as The Haas Brothers, got their start in design by studying stone carving and construction under their father in their hometown of Austin, Texas. In September 2010, the brothers were commissioned to collaborate on a project by renowned architectural firm Johnston Marklee, at Sony Studios in Los Angeles, and "The Haas Brothers" as a studio practice was born. In the years since, the brothers have continued to grow their design studio and spend their time prototyping forms and experimenting with materials, surface textures and processes. In 2013 they created a limited-edition furniture collection for Versace. In their current design works, The Haas Brothers explore aesthetic and formal themes related to nature, science fiction, psychedelia and color theory.
