FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE BASS RECEIVES FEDERAL AND LOCAL FUNDING FOR HAAS BROTHERS’ FIRST SOLO MUSEUM EXHIBITION

Recent funding including an NEA Art Works grant and a Funding Arts Network visual arts grant to support the upcoming exhibition by the Haas Brothers: Ferngully

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (May 14, 2018) – This month, two major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Funding Arts Network of Miami Dade County were awarded to The Bass in Miami Beach for the upcoming exhibition, Ferngully, by the Haas Brothers. The exhibition opens Wednesday, December 5, 2018, with a formal reception from 8-10 p.m.

Included in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018, is an Art Works grant of $35,000 to The Bass for the upcoming exhibition, Haas Brothers: Ferngully. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as The Bass in Miami Beach, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”

Announced earlier this month, The Bass also received one of six visual arts grants from the Funding Arts Network (FAN), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing the visual and performing arts programs in Miami-Dade County, towards the Haas Brothers exhibition.

“Over the last 54 years, The Bass has received generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and FAN, among many others,” comments Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Bass. “Support from these organizations continues to make our exhibitions possible, while furthering the museum’s ability to leverage other major grants and donations. We are continually grateful for the support of the NEA and FAN and look forward to this Fall’s exhibition with the Haas Brothers.”

Following a commitment to embrace an ever-expanding definition of ‘contemporary art’ that includes design, architecture, and fashion, The Bass presents the Haas Brothers first solo museum exhibition, Ferngully, this fall.  The exhibition of new work by LA-based designers, explores the precarity and regenerative possibilities of the natural environment. Ferngully, named after a 1992 animated film of the same title, invites visitors into a utopic setting that exemplifies the Haas Brothers’ return to nature through design.

Blurring the lines between art and design, the Haas Brothers’ body of work frequently subverts the materiality of its media, departing from the functional, and moving towards the exclusively sculptural. Ferngully takes form as an immersive installation comprising diverse elements such as beadwork, ceramics, velvet, and blown glass. Ceramic tree trunks with copper leaves and blown glass coconuts illuminate biomorphic, sculptural seating elements and velveteen cacti. A padded floor evoking a forest floor, along with ambient sounds and lighting further evince a sumptuous, yet fragile environment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Haas Brothers: Ferngully is organized by Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Bass, along with Leilani Lynch, Assistant Curator, The Bass.

The Haas Brothers: Ferngully is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works, and Funding Arts Network and presented with the support of the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program and Cultural Arts Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

ABOUT THE HAAS BROTHERS
Born in Austin, Texas, Nikolai and Simon Haas (b. 1984), founded The Haas Brothers in Los Angeles in 2010. Early on, the brothers received accolades for their exceptional craftsmanship. The years since have seen them evolve from fabricators and collaborators to nimble cross-pollinators in creative disciplines including fashion, film, art and design. In their current works, The Haas Brothers explore aesthetic themes related to nature, science fiction, sexuality, and psychedelia. Their mastery and uniquely clever use of materials ranging from brass, porcelain and fur, to highly technical resins and polyurethane, sets them apart as designers. In 2015, The Haas Brothers embarked on an extraordinary collaboration with women artisans in Cape Town, South Africa. The resulting series of intricately beaded sculptural objects, Afreaks, was included in Beauty, at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, NY and at the San Jose Museum of Art, CA. Their work is in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, NY, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY. The Haas Brothers currently live and work in Los Angeles, CA.

ABOUT THE BASS
The Bass is Miami Beach’s contemporary art museum. Founded in 1964 by the City of Miami Beach, the museum was established after the donation of a private collection by residents John and Johanna Bass and opened in what was formerly the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center, a 1930s Art Deco building designed by Russell Pancoast. Recognized for organizing the first solo museum exhibitions in the United States of international artists such as Erwin Wurm, The Bass has also presented major exhibitions by influential artists including El Anatsui, Isaac Julien, Eve Sussman and Piotr Uklański. The exhibition program encompasses a wide range of media and artistic points of view, bringing fresh perspectives to the diverse cultural context of Miami Beach. The Bass is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. For more information, please visit www.thebass.org, or follow The Bass on social media at www.facebook.com/TheBassMoA or Twitter and Instagram via @TheBassMoA.

2018 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Through May 20, 2018
PASCALE MARTHINE TAYOU: Beautiful

Through September 2, 2018
LAURE PROUVOST: They Are Waiting for You

Through September 2, 2018
DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8

May 24 – October 21, 2018
KAREN RIFAS: Deceptive Constructions

Opening June 2018
RECENT ACQUISITIONS: Selections from The Bass Collection

October 13, 2018 – April 21, 2019
AARON CURRY: Tune Yer Head

October 13, 2018 – March 10, 2019
PAOLA PIVI

December 6, 2018 – April 21, 2019
THE HAAS BROTHERS: Ferngully

MEDIA CONTACTS
For local and Florida media inquiries:
Julia Rudo
Communications Manager, The Bass
[email protected]
+ 1 786 477 6009

[Image credits: (Left) Portrait of Nikolai and Simon Haas. Photo courtesy of Joe Kramm / R & Company. (Right) Illustration of new work for Haas Brothers: Ferngully at The Bass. Image courtesy of the Haas Brothers and R & Company.]