Marianne Boesky Gallery is delighted to unleash a new herd of Beasts by Los Angeles-based twins, The Haas Brothers.
An ongoing and iconic body of work by the brothers, the Beasts are composed of sustainably-sourced furs and metallic legs, which are meticulously carved in wax before being recast in bronze. The exquisiteness of their forms imbues them with a strong sense of design, but each beast is painstakingly made by the artists’ hands and embodies a studied dedication to their craft.
The Beasts grew out of the Haas Brothers’ earlier design-work as the artists breathed life into their shag, nearly biomorphic furniture. Their array of furry forms evolved into a family of different creatures, each developing their own identities and coming into being as they grew divergent appendages and limbs. The inventive taxonomy, presented in a range of sizes – micro to mini to full-sized, and even functional, represents a complex ecosystem and multi-ethnic community, undercut by a witty and playful sense of humor.
Variably on two, four or even more legs, the Beasts are made all the more ferocious and adorable by their playful features - horns, lips, and genitals (oh my!) as well as antennae, beaks, and claws. Their unique identities are heightened by their humorous titles that play with pop-cultural references and puns, ranging from Humpy Bogart and Jeff Ridges to Hook Shields.
Endowed with diverse personalities, genders, sexualities, races, and human and animal characteristics, the Beasts recraft and represent figures from the lives of the artists, drawing inspiration from close friends or family members. Rather than being a beastly portrait of these individuals, each sculpture represents an embodiment of their spirit and the artists’ emotional response to them.
Presented in the artists’ 2018 exhibition Ferngully at the Bass Museum of Art, The Haas Brothers’ iconic Beasts encapsulate the artists’ nostalgic and fantastic approach to artmaking. Rebelling against perceived boundaries, the artists have an incredibly diverse body of work, ranging from functional design to singular artworks and a world of undefinable objects in the liminal space between.
Unleash the Beasts!
