Haas Brothers | Mathemagical

Boesky Gallery is pleased to present _Mathemagical_, an exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by Los Angeles-based artists the Haas Brothers (b. 1984; Santa Monica, CA). _Mathemagical_, the artists' fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, coincides with the presentation of _Uncanny Valley_, the Haas Brothers traveling mid-career museum survey—which originated at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, MI and opens this September at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX. Through their rigorous, innovative approach to materials, the Haas Brothers—twins Nikolai and Simon—illuminate the patterns of emergence that govern the natural world. Harnessing Nikolai's creative expressionism and Simon's aptitude for analysis and systemization, the Haas Brothers deploy their characteristic witty humor to draw viewers in before revealing the sophisticated technical processes and rich conceptualism that underpin their practice. Throughout their work, the Haas Brothers often employ systems they adopted from the realm of mathematics. Beginning with relatively simple forms, the artists then subject them to defined processes—adding paint or clay or wax or beads according to a precise algorithm—resulting in a series of complex, emergent patterns. Over time, the Haas Brothers have applied these same processes in using progressively more technical materials and complex forms at ever-growing scales. Their _Accretion_ works, for example, began as small, ceramic vessels. Inspired by the layered accumulation process found throughout the natural world—in coral, in tree fungus, in cave formations—the artists brushed layer upon layer of wet clay atop the surface of domestically scaled vessels to create mottled, organically textured surfaces. The artists subsequently translated the process into paintings and cast bronze sculpture. With _Mathemagical_, the Haas Brothers present their most ambitious systematized works to date. For a new suite of _Accretion_ paintings, the artists begin with simple, nostalgic landscape scenes. The artists then apply paint thickened with a custom acrylic medium—which the artists developed in collaboration with Golden Artist Colors—to the scene according to a reaction-diffusion equation, the same equation that describes how cells divide and grow or how a pattern of stripes and spots appears on animal fur. Using a defined color palette, this process dictates how the artists apply paint to the canvas, profoundly abstracting the scenes as layer upon layer of paint builds atop the surface. The Haas Brothers have also used the _Accretion_ process to reimagine their iconic _Beasts_. Using the ceramic coil-based wax building process developed for earlier bronze _Accretion_ sculptures, the artists slowly build layers of wax to produce a fur-like surface texture on the surface of their anthropomorphic personality portraits of friends and family. Casting the forms in bronze and finishing them with rich patinas, the artists transform their beloved _Beasts_ into the most technically complex and sculpturally sophisticated expression of the _Accretion_ process yet. The _Peach Tree_—the largest work in _Mathemagical_—exemplifies a host of the systematic and technical innovations that the Haas Brothers have developed throughout their career. The carved stone base is an homage to their ongoing work in stone—and to their stonemason father. The tree's bronze trunk is textured using the same _Accretion_ process as the _Beast_ works. The Venetian glass bead foliage was hand-beaded—according to a series of algorithms for creating perfect leaves—by the Haas Sisters of Lost Hills, a group of women from an agricultural community in central California who, over the course of nearly a decade, have learned the Haas Brothers' particular beading technique. Through their ongoing partnership with the Haas Sisters, the artists engage in a social practice, creating an economy of work where none existed before. And finally, the tree is finished with intricately blown-glass peaches—which, illuminated from within—cast a warm, peachy glow across the room. _Mathemagical_ embodies the capacity of systems to produce awe. In the hands of the Haas Brothers, these mathematically defined algorithms manifest the transformation of the ordinary into the magical, the fantastical, the transcendent. "The Haas Brothers," curator Brooke Hodge writes, "have created a comprehensive world for themselves—one that is magical and mystical…a world that feels like a complete cosmos, where all the works, techniques, and ideas come together." With _Mathemagical_, the Haas Brothers offer a stark reminder that the very systems that define our universe hold the power to produce profound change—to make visible untold magic and yield boundless joy.