Haas Brothers' Uncanny Valley exhibition at Museum of Arts and Design explores AI and craft

Twin artists Nikolai and Simon Haas present their exhibition 'Uncanny Valley' at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, running until 16 August 2026. The Los Angeles-based duo, known as the Haas Brothers, showcase 85 works spanning 15 years of practice that blend art, furniture, craft, and technology through hybrid creatures and unusual forms. Organized with the Cranbrook Art Museum in Detroit, the exhibition features surreal algorithmically-generated landscapes as backdrops. Works include zoomorphic sculptures like 'Beasts,' 'Emergent Sculptures' exploring self-generating digital forms, and never-ending landscapes inspired by early computer graphics. The show highlights how technology merges with human-centered craftsmanship, proposing a speculative art landscape where tradition and artificial intelligence intertwine. A series of vignettes called 'problem-solving fantasies' groups these explorations. Collaborative pieces include the 'Freaks' series of beaded critters created with Cape Town's MonkeyBiz collective and women artisans in Lost Hills, California. An accompanying monograph provides deeper insight through essays, interviews, and archival material. Museum director Tim Rodgers describes the exhibition as inviting visitors into worlds where digital processes and handwork coexist, rethinking how objects are made and valued.