BY ALISON COHEN & GRACE CLARKE
The world of Nikolai and Simon Haas has always existed somewhere between dream and design. Now, for the first time, their imagination takes center stage in Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley, the first-ever mid-career survey devoted to the Los Angeles–based twins whose decade-spanning practice defies any category. Opening at the Cranbrook Art Museum before traveling nationwide, the exhibition traces 15 years of work that blends everything from art, craft, and technology into a riot of color, texture, and emotion.
Since founding their studio in 2010, the Haas Brothers have built a reputation for turning the ordinary into the otherworldly. Their bronze sculptures, hand-beaded creatures, and biomorphic furniture blur the lines between functional and fantasy. Their pieces channel the cultural chaos of the late ’90s and early 2000s into a dichotomy of nostalgia with a modern feel. Stepping into the exhibition is like stepping into a weird fever dream (in the best way possible, of course).
Uncanny Valley brings together its most defining series, arranged in immersive vignettes. The show will be accompanied by a comprehensive 256-page monograph—co-published by Cranbrook Art Museum and Monacelli Press—that delves deeper into their creative evolution. After its debut, Uncanny Valley will travel to New York’s Museum of Arts and Design in spring 2026, with additional stops to follow, continuing the brothers’ mission to make art that feels as alive and unpredictable.
