Image: Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin will present ‘Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley’, the first mid-career survey of twin artists Nikolai and Simon Haas. The nationally touring exhibition opens to the public on September 27, 2026, and will remain on view through January 17, 2027, in the museum’s Butler Gallery.
The exhibition brings together selections from major bodies of work made by the brothers over the past 15 years. Known for sculptures that combine art, design, and technology, the Haas Brothers create colorful biomorphic forms that resemble creatures and plants from another world. Their intricate objects use materials including porcelain, bronze, wool, glass beads, fur, wood, velvet, and electrical components.
The artists, both born in 1984, were raised in Austin, and the museum identifies the city as an important source of imagery and cultural reference in their work. Their stated inspirations from childhood include public art, local business signage, the Treaty Oak, and Austin’s moontowers. The exhibition’s fantastical forms therefore return to the city where the brothers grew up, while surveying an artistic practice developed across the past decade and a half.
Works listed in the Blanton’s presentation include ‘Bruce Willis Beyonclé’ (2016), made from hand-thrown and accreted porcelain, gold luster, and brass plate; ‘Father Partner’ (2017), also in porcelain and gold luster; ‘She’s So Ducky’ (2018), a sculpture combining solid carved walnut, velvet, glass, and electrical lighting components; and ‘Centripeter Shire’ (2019), constructed with glass beads, wire, and mixed-fiber stuffing. More recent works include ‘Cyberzoid 3’ (2023), made from 3D-printed nylon, automotive paint, and glow-in-the-dark blown glass, and ‘The Strawberry Tree’ (2024), which incorporates patinated bronze, Pele de Tigre marble, glass beads, hand-blown glass, and electrical components.
‘Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley’ is organized by Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Laura Mott, Cranbrook’s chief curator, curated the exhibition with assistance from Katy Kim, the Jeanne and Ralph Graham Curatorial Fellow. Support for the Blanton’s presentation is provided in part by Bank of America, Suzanne Deal Booth, The Loraine O’Gorman Gonzalez Creative Crafts Fund, and Lora Reynolds.
The Blanton, part of The University of Texas at Austin, will offer members early access from September 23 through 26. The museum’s event calendar lists member preview days on September 23, 24, and 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on September 26 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; a Director’s Circle preview party is scheduled for September 18. The exhibition is included with museum admission and is free for members. It will be on view in Austin through January 17, 2027.
