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Imagine a world of fantastic characters emerging from the magical world of FernGully, The Last Rainforest, an inspiring film by the Haas brothers, produced by Kroyer. A 1992 movie with the participation of Robin Williams, if to this we remove plot and add two brothers, twins, Nikolai and Simon different and complementary, one more rational and the other more spiritual and creative. To these factors we mix up the education in a family with an established screenwriter mom and an older brother, Lucas, actor, who allow them to live the not exactly conventional attitudes of the Hollywood environment, which they daydream on with their eclectic mind. To this family picture we add a painter and sculptor father who allows them to experiment and know the materials by working with them in the most appropriate way. We insert all the elements in the childhood environment of Nikolai and Simon: Texas, Austin precisely, with its prairies, its woods and wild animals, among which the nine-band armadillo, animal par excellence in Texas, the tailless Mexican bat and the horned Texas lizard that already in their imaginative names plunge us into a magical world. To crown all this we add a serene and balanced family environment: “A family in which music and the smell of freshly baked cookies have never been lacking”, says Nikolai.
This is the background of the Haas brothers.
The Haas Brothers explore aesthetic themes related to nature, science fiction, sexuality and psychedelia. Their mastery and the unique and intelligent use of materials: brass, porcelain, blown glass, various fur, highly technical resins and polyurethane, distinguish them as designers.
Among them, they have a magnetic and symbiotic relationship through which they are able to bring out the best of each other and as Nikolai defines during the Culture Curator “The real magic is the collaboration with Simon “, A declaration of fraternal love that defines the relationship between the two in which there is no rivalry and no conflict: one is complementary to the other to the point of making them ideal partners for the work that has taken concrete shape in 2010, with the money earned by the sale of furniture, commissioned by the actor Tobey Maguire, among the firsts to recognize the talent beyond the lines for their creative way of approaching objects, for the exponential quality of products, of the materials used and their finishes.
Their customers, given the prohibitive costs due to the use of materials of the highest level, is composed of wealthy profiles, with unique works estimated at around $ 100,000.
The opening of the 2010 Haas Brothers brand in Los Angeles, the beating heart of California, attracted the attention of famous people including Lady Gaga who commissioned masks for her shows, Donatella Versace, who wanted them for an assortment of accessories, such as brass furniture, black leather and clothes, Roman Alonso who recruited them to decorate the hall of the brand new LA Ace Hotel and the American architect Peter Marino who enrolled them to collaborate in the preparation of the Louis Vuitton House in Shanghai.
Not new to the Miami environment that they consider a very stimulating city in 2014 they participated in the Design Miami, attending with the controversial “Advocates for the Sexual Outsider”: a collection made up of a sex room, with a leather entrance in the shape of lips and erotic drawings whose purpose was to ironically try to break down the repressive barriers using on a topic still considered taboos for many.
This year, The Haas Brothers, as well as being once again present at Design Miami also in terms of talkers, will have the honor of having their first solo show at The Bass Museum, Miami Beach. The Bass Museum has received a grant from the NEA -National Endowment for the Arts- and the Miami Dade County Funding Arts Network for the exhibition, FernGully of the Haas Brothers. This is because the art category is NEA’s largest funding category that supports projects that focus on creating art that meets the highest standards of artistic excellence combined with public engagement, lifelong learning and the strengthening of community through the arts. The FernGully exhibition of The Haas Brothers: was organized by Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Curator of The Bass, together with Leilani Lynch, assistant curator for the museum.
In addition to their first solo show, the “Bass” was also a 800-square-foot pop-up store with part of the 65-piece collection, designed in collaboration with Elad Yifrach, creative director and founder of the luxury lifestyle brand L ‘OBJET, which absolutely wanted them to be included in his portfolio, which includes brands that, in order to be such, must meet luxury standards.
The pop up store will be open before the culture curator entitled “Where Have All The Utopias Gone?”, discussion moderated by the writer and activist Tom Healy in the presence of The Haas Brothers and David Grutman, longtime friend and founder of Groop Hospitality, with a portfolio that includes the LIV, the Story, the Komodo, the OTL, the Planta in South Beach and the newborn restaurant and cocktail lounge Swan & Bar Bevy in the Design District.
Regarding the pop-up store, the collection is a meeting of imaginative minds and expert hands, inspired by the otherworldly landscape of Joshua Tree and as told by Jarredd Olivo, global director of the brand OBJET: “there will be a first exposure of pieces strictly limited edition, visible (and available) from December 2nd up to the 9th, directly in the space set up in the museum, and a second part of the exhibition available in February, part of the collection will also be available online on l-objet.com/haas website starting from November 19th. “Among the pieces on display are magnificent fantastic porcelain animals that act as salad bowls, and tureens, candles, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, magnifying glasses in brass and soft plaid in worked wool Mohair”. Objects to love and to use in everyday moments that make the ordinary extraordinary.
As for the personal exhibition, chasing the commitment to embrace a definition of contemporary art in continuous evolution, able to include design, architecture and fashion, entering the exhibition FernGully, you are immersed in a world made up of really surprising fantastic animals, which, neglecting the incredible creativity, amaze by the features, dimensions and materials which they are made of, subverting in some cases the functional purpose of the works in favor of a sculptural approach. Playful and sometimes irreverent, their furniture and sculptural objects are in the form of anthropomorphic hairy chairs, fantastic chairs and mushrooms in relief and liquid clay growth vessels that explore themes of mathematics, science and nature, sexuality, nostalgia and social equity. All exhibited animals are made of sumptuous materials, such as brown, white and rust Icelandic sheepskin, curly cow fur, chocolate-colored goatskin fur, gray Gotland sheep fur, sculpted ebony and bronze melted, blown glass, velvet beads and ceramics. They have ornate forms of horns, tongues, feet and genitals and are accompanied by wonderfully creative names such as Uma Worm-an (2018), Hair Witch Project (2015) and Wee Wee Top (2017), Tequila Sunrise (2016) Father Accretion (2018 ) or Wavy Jones (2018. The ceramic vases are processed through a procedure that mimics natural growth by 3D printing, while fiber optic lamps, complete with fabric trunks and copper fronds, are equipped with illuminated beaded pods that hang from the branches).
John Palm Goutier (2018), Pope John Palm (2018), Palm Grier (2018) are some of the new pieces of art produced specifically for this exhibition.
In addition to these pieces appear works which are part of the Afreaks collection, made in collaboration with the Haas Sisters of Cape Town in Africa, in which they came across one of their trips. Together, the brothers and sisters have made over 25 completely edged sculptures handmade by skilled craft women who worked with beads, and with whom in 2015 they started an extraordinary collaboration producing colorful animals and plants: they are an example ‘Spotley Cru “(2017) and Cream of Some Fungi (2016). The works are included in Beauty, at the Cooper Hewitt, at the Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York and at the San Jose Museum of Art, CA. The Haas Brothers have also collaborated with the ladies of Lost Hills in California to create the dates in relief for the palms because the conception of art for The Haas Brothers finds a recurring basis in the collective act of artisanal production. Their works are exhibited in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, NY and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY.
All these creatures are endowed with different personalities, genres, sexuality, races and human and animal characteristics and are presented in a range of different sizes: from micro, to mini, up to natural and functional size. which represents a complex ecosystem and a multiethnic and ironic community.
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