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The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin is presenting “Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley,” a mid-career survey of artists Nikolai and Simon Haas. The exhibition brings together surreal sculpture, figurative furniture, plush characters and illuminated installations, and is scheduled to remain on view through Jan. 17 before traveling to the Mint Museum in Charlotte.
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin is presenting “Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley,” a large-scale survey of artists Nikolai and Simon Haas that gathers work from their collaborative practice, including surreal sculptures, figurative furniture, plush characters and illuminated installations. The exhibition is scheduled to remain on view through Jan. 17, 2027, then travel to the Mint Museum in Charlotte, giving visitors in the brothers’ childhood city an opportunity to see a broad selection of their work.
The exhibition presents works by the Los Angeles-based siblings, who have collaborated as the Haas Brothers since 2010. Their practice is known for fantastical forms drawn from flora and fauna, treated with a deliberately playful and surreal sensibility. At the Blanton, that approach spans objects that sit between sculpture and furniture, cartoon-like soft figures and installations that use light.
One work highlighted in the exhibition coverage is a strawberry tree that seems, in the report’s description, as though it has been transplanted from another planet. The piece reflects the brothers’ interest in the boundary between the natural and the artificial, a recurring concern in work that combines familiar organic references with unexpected materials and forms. The exhibition brings these kinds of objects together rather than limiting the artists to a single medium or category.
“Uncanny Valley” has previously been shown at the Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. The Blanton presentation is described as the duo’s first mid-career survey, a format that looks across a substantial period of an artist’s work. The Austin stop also connects the exhibition to the brothers’ personal history: Nikolai and Simon lived in the city from age three to 19.
A Survey Returns to Austin
The exhibition’s significance lies in bringing a broad view of the Haas Brothers’ work to a city closely tied to their early lives. Their Austin years overlapped with the rise of “Keep Austin Weird” as a local cultural ethos, which the source report identifies as an early influence. That connection offers a useful point of reference for visitors, but the exhibition’s scope is not limited to biography: it presents a varied body of work across sculpture, furniture and installation.
A mid-career survey can also make connections visible across works that might otherwise be encountered separately. In this case, the Blanton presentation gathers the brothers’ recurring interest in strange combinations of technology, nature and cuteness. The show’s next stop in Charlotte extends that view to another museum audience, although details about its presentation there are not provided in the source material.
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From Austin Childhood to Survey
Nikolai and Simon Haas are Los Angeles artists who have worked together since 2010. Their objects often draw on animals and plants, reshaping those references into figures and environments that are playful, odd or intentionally difficult to categorize. The exhibition brings together this range of work and frames the practice through the phrase “Uncanny Valley.”
That phrase is commonly used in discussions of robotics to describe a response in which a humanlike object may feel more unsettling as it becomes more lifelike. In a statement for the exhibition, Simon Haas applies the idea to the brothers’ work and says that adding cuteness can shift a viewer’s response. He also describes the concept as a theme that became clear when looking across their roughly 15-year collaboration. The report says the exhibition has traveled from Cranbrook and the Museum of Arts and Design to Austin, with the Mint Museum named as its final planned venue.
““When the robot becomes too human, empathy switches to revulsion.””
— Simon Haas, in a statement for the exhibition
Details of the Charlotte Presentation
The available report identifies Jan. 17 as the end of the Austin presentation and names the Mint Museum in Charlotte as the exhibition’s final location. It does not give the Charlotte opening date, the length of that presentation or whether the selection of works will change between venues. The source also does not specify the total number of works on view in Austin or provide a complete checklist, so the full scope of the installation cannot be confirmed from the material provided.
The Survey Heads to Charlotte
The exhibition is scheduled to remain at the Blanton Museum of Art through Jan. 17, 2027. After its Austin run, it is due to travel to the Mint Museum in Charlotte, described in the source report as its final location. The Mint’s dates and any venue-specific changes have not been stated in the material provided.
Visitors planning to see the exhibition in Austin should check the Blanton’s current visitor information for practical details, including admission and hours. The source report also notes an accompanying monograph titled Uncanny Valley, though it does not provide publication or availability details beyond pointing readers to Bookshop.
Key Questions
Where is “Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley” on view?
It is on view at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.
How long will the exhibition be in Austin?
The source report says the exhibition is scheduled to remain on view through Jan. 17, 2027.
What kinds of work are included?
The survey includes sculptures, figurative furniture, plush cartoon-like characters and illuminated installations, according to the report.
Where will the exhibition go after Austin?
It is scheduled to travel to the Mint Museum in Charlotte, which the report identifies as its final location. The Charlotte dates are not specified.
Why is the exhibition called “Uncanny Valley”?
Simon Haas links the title to the robotics concept in which a nearly humanlike object can provoke unease. He says the brothers’ work also uses cuteness to shape how viewers respond to unusual forms.
Source: rss
