The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Haas Brothers: Tuesday, March 21, 6:00–7:30 p.m.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation services.
Join us in person for a lecture by Simon and Nikolai Haas followed by an audience Q&A.
Since founding the Haas Brothers in 2010, twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas have spurned arbitrary artistic boundaries and hierarchies, creating a provocative world that merges art, fashion, film, music, and design. Playful and at times irreverent, they explore aesthetic themes related to nature, science fiction, sexuality, and psychedelia. Their inventive use of materials ranges from copper, porcelain, and fur to technical resins and polyurethane.
In 2013, the Haas Brothers began to collaborate with Monkeybiz, a South African women's collective known for their beadwork who have also branded themselves as the Haas Sisters. The Haas Brothers have also established a partnership with a group of women from Lost Hills, California, a small agricultural town with limited employment opportunities for women, to facilitate the opportunity for the women to learn beadwork skills. The Haas Brothers now employ these women for their beadwork creations.
Their first solo museum show opened in Miami Beach at The Bass Museum in 2018 and their work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the RISD Museum. In 2019, they were the recipients of the Lin Arison Award given by the YoungArts Foundation. Most recently, their exhibition, Constant Carnival: The Haas Brothers in Context, was on view at the Katonah Museum of Art from March 13 to June 26, 2022.
Portrait credit: Haas Brothers. Photo: Daniel Trese
Artist Website
Gallery Representation
The Haas Brothers Take Their Fantastical Creatures to Shanghai in the Designers’ First Appearance in China
Nell Card | artnet news | December 16, 2022
L’OBJET x Haas Brothers Collection Surprises and Delights
Molly Wilcox | Cultured Magazine | March 25, 2022
Citizens of Humanity and the Haas Brothers’ alpine collaboration is peak ski chic
Laura Hawkins | Wallpaper Magazine | January 11, 2022
The Haas Brothers Bring Their Otherworldly Creatures to SCAD
Nate Storey | Surface Magazine | May 24, 2021
Haas Brothers designs alien-like objects with tentacles created by multiple brushstrokes
Jennifer Hahn | dezeen | October 10, 2019
Haas Brothers imagine Wild Things homeware as desert creatures
Eleanor Gibson | dezeen | March 27, 2019
The Haas Brothers: Volume One by 
The Haas Brothers: Volume 2, Afreaks by 
Objects: USA 2020 by 
Open Studio: Do-It-Yourself Art Projects by Contemporary Artists by Constant Carnival: The Haas Brothers in Context at Katonah Museum of Art
Constant Carnival: The Haas Brothers in Context (March 13 – June 26, 2022) explores the work of Simon and Nikolai Haas within the art historical tradition of the carnivalesque.
Beast in Show at the SCAD Museum of Art
Beast in Show (January 21 – July 3, 2021) presents recent “beast” sculptures ranging in scale from the hand-held to the larger-than-life.
The Haas Brothers: Ferngully at the Bass Museum of Art
Ferngully (December 5, 2018 – April 21, 2019), the Hass Brothers first solo museum exhibition, positions the viewer in an immersive environment that evokes cycles of renewal and rebirth found in nature.
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977–98).