PRESENTATION: The Haas Brothers-Inner Visions

Throughout their practice, the Haas Brothers (twins Nikolai and Simon) investigate the slippery divide between art and design with humor, whimsy, and inventive originality. While they 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.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Marianne Boesky Gallery

Marrying their respective personalities and strengths (Simon’s penchant for analysis and systemization and Niki’s playfulness, humor, and creativity) the duo’s practice integrates a studied, systematic approach to materials and processes with a commitment to dismantling the rigid social constraints, guiding them toward an emotional and spiritual resonance within their work. In their solo exhibition “Inner Visions” the Haas Brothers debut a series of paintings—a first for their practice—alongside new bronze sculptures, both of which represent an evolution of the Accretion technique they began developing more than a decade ago. Inspired by the layered accumulation process found throughout the natural world—in coral, in tree fungus, in cave formations—the artists aspired to build something of a similar texture. In the first iteration of the Accretion process, the artists brushed layers of wet clay atop dried clay—their ceramic vessels, over time, amassing mottled, organically textured surfaces. “Accreting layer by layer we guide the growth of tiny, fragile structures until each original speck of texture has become a porcelain petal,” the Haas Brothers write. “The resulting texture is a record of time and growth, it’s fur-and-fungus-like fingers breathing life into the vessel’s form.” While the Accretions began as small ceramic objects, the process lends itself to the kinds of labor-intensive, cross-disciplinary material innovations for which the Haas Brothers are renowned. Over the past ten years, the pair translated the Accretions first to bronze and most recently into painting. To create accreted works in bronze, the artists developed an innovative process loosely based on ceramic coil building, using wax to build up the richly textured surfaces. Translated into bronze, these bulbous forms—both domestic and monumental in scale—are finished with a chemical patina that, over time, produce natural, unique variations in color and texture on the accreted surface. The new “Accretion Paintings” begin as a predetermined set of rules—draw this shape, make that line—that the artists repeat using squeeze bottles of acrylic paint, building up the surfaces over time to create richly textured, three-dimensional surfaces. The Haas Brothers paint the canvases by hand, following the same pattern again and again; their forms taking on the imperfections inherent to a human process, as in the way a story, told over and over, takes on new details and meanings. The resulting paintings bear intriguing—yet indecipherable—patterns, the desire to make sense of them drawing viewers in. Both time and labor-intensive, the Accretions—in all their material forms—embody the Haas Brothers’ almost obsessive investment in process, a meditative celebration of human artistic creation as defined systems and the laws of physics yield to unexpected beauty. The exhibition takes its title from Stevie Wonder’s 1973 album, “Innervisions”, which Nikolai and Simon listened to frequently as children. Wonder’s groovy melodies, crooning vocals, and psychedelic reminiscences set the tone for the exhibition—yet, these elements of Wonder’s music also belie his technical virtuosity and prodigious musicality. The same can be said of the Haas Brothers’ work—their humorous spirit and trippy aesthetics at times overshadowing the scientific rigor and spiritual depth of their work. With Inner Visions, the Haas Brothers bring the systematic underpinnings of their practice to the fore, reaching for a deep meditative, metaphysical spirit that lives within their practice.

Photo: The Haas Brothers, Accretion Painting 8, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 49 3/4 x 73 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches 126.4 x 186.1 x 8.3 cm, © The Haas Brothers, Courtesy the artists and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Info: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Streer, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 2/5-8/6/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://marianneboeskygallery.com/