Being a twin means never getting to be just one person; as CULTURED‘s resident twin, I know this all too well.
In the art world, where identity, authorship, and point of view are currencies unto themselves, that doubling can be both complication and creative advantage. Reader, I’ll let you in on a secret: what began as a stray office observation about the presence of twins in the art world quickly became a surprisingly slippery reporting assignment. There is no neat census of art-world twins, and no particular reason that twins should be disproportionately drawn to galleries, museums, or studio-led lives. And yet, once I started collecting names, they seemed to be everywhere.
Enter artists Nikolai and Simon Haas, photographers Elliot and Erick Jiménez, David Zwirner gallery’s Julia and Katherine Lukacher, and arts patron Valeria Napoleone and designer Stefania Pramma, for whom twinning has meant a lifetime of creative and professional cross-pollination. The Lukachers grew up around museums and historic homes before finding their way to David Zwirner. The Jiménez brothers turned being constantly treated as a unit into a reason to experiment creatively. Napoleone and Pramma describe their relationship as two acts of vision spanning art, fashion, and philanthropy. The Haas Brothers have turned shared authorship into an entire creative practice, complete with a studio that once housed three other twins. *It should go without saying that this is in no way an exhaustive list—art-world twins began coming out of the woodwork soon after this article was originally published.
For CULTURED’s survey of twins in the art world, I went looking for some version of my experience in theirs. What I found instead were relationships that made me reconsider the things I had always taken for granted about twindom: how much of ourselves is shared versus chosen, and how wonderfully strange it is to become a specialized individual alongside someone who started exactly where you did.
Julia Lukacher, Global Head of Communications at David Zwirner, and Katherine Lukacher, Director of Secondary Market Online Sales at David Zwirner
Julia and Katherine Lukacher have spent their respective careers immersed in the art market; they now both work at David Zwirner in New York, heading the gallery’s communications and secondary sales departments respectively. Raised by an art historian father and a mother who works in historic preservation and textile history, they grew up moving between museums and heritage sites. Their twinhood, they say, has always come with a push toward differentiation: two people raised in the same cultural orbit, determined to develop their own points of view.
Who’s the bigger critic?
Katherine Lukacher: Julia.
Julia Lukacher: Me.
Do you know other creative twins? How did you find each other?
Julia: No, but I was fascinated to learn that Gordon Matta-Clark was a twin. I didn’t know that until I joined the gallery.
Katherine: I don’t!
Which twin has more discipline?
Katherine: Julia.
Julia: Kat.
Who thrives best under deadline pressure, and who cracks first?
Julia: I do okay under pressure.
Katherine: If you just adapt quickly, pressure kind of goes away.
Best twin mix-up story?
Katherine: My rule is simple: When someone waves at me on the street, I always wave back. I rarely know who they are, but I assume they think I’m Julia—and it’s just too complicated to explain why I don’t know them.
Julia: When Kat used to work at Phillips [auction house], I often had people coming up to me asking me questions about the lots on view.
What, if anything, has being a twin in the art world taught you?
Julia: That sometimes people in the visual fields don’t look all that closely.
Katherine: It’s funny how effortlessly people in the art world could tell us apart as sisters—until they hear the word “twin.” Suddenly, they become convinced that they won’t be able to tell us apart.
What twins do you relate to most?
Julia: I’m not sure if I relate to them, but one set of twins who I grew up with were the twins in the original Parent Trap movie.
Katherine: I thought Hayley Mills was a twin for the longest time. I felt so betrayed when I found out it was just film doubling.
Do you think being a twin forced you to be more creative?
Julia: It forces you to try and differentiate yourself.
Katherine: Twins sometimes end up building their identity in deliberate opposition to the other one. So, we’re creative in that way.
What’s something people get wrong about twins?
Julia: That we know what it’s like to not be a twin.
Katherine: That we will react the same way to situations.
What’s one thing your twin can say to you that nobody else can?
Julia: To get to the point when a story is dragging on.
Katherine: I’m always telling Julia to slow down because she walks too fast.
What’s the rudest question people ask twins?
Julia: This is the weirdest: people ask if we can read each other’s mind.
Katherine: Someone asked me if I ever look in the mirror and get confused.
If you had to curate an exhibition about your twin, what’s the title? Don’t hold back!
Julia: Classic inside twin jokes…”Pip’s World.”
Katherine: “To the Stars.”
Valeria Napoleone, collector, and Stefania Pramma, accessories designer
Valeria Napoleone and Stefania Pramma have followed distinct but deeply intertwined paths through art, fashion, and design. Based in London, Napoleone is a prominent arts patron whose activities span collecting work by female artists and managing the Valeria Napoleone XX initiative, which supports female representation in art institutions including SculptureCenter in New York and the Contemporary Arts Society in London. Pramma, who lives in New York, works across design and creative direction with her Pramma handbag and jewelry line. Raised to cultivate their individual tastes while feeding one another’s curiosity, the sisters describe their relationship as “two acts of vision”—separate practices sustained by a shared appetite for boundary-pushing cultural intrigue.
Who’s the bigger critic?
Stefania Pramma: Vale is very direct. I would say she is.
Valeria Napoleone: We alternate.
What’s your theory for how you both ended up in cultural spaces?
Stefania: Our parents encouraged us to look into our own individuality. We both were always interested in feeding each other’s creativity. Even if this journey took us in two different cultural spaces, our conversations still continue today.
Valeria: We grew up educated to find our own taste and feed it, and to have fun doing it with total freedom. Both art and fashion are ways of self-expression and assertiveness. I am more interested in creating through thoughts and ideas conceptually, whether it be through my collection or the direction of my philanthropy. Sissi’s [Stefania’s] creative process goes through making and designing.
Who holds a bigger grudge?
Stefania: No grudges. If any, they last a second.
Valeria: We cannot. It does not last long enough to be called a grudge.
What’s your best twin mix-up story?
Stefania: There’s not one I can remember.
Valeria: We never thought we could get away with any. We always thought we were so different.
What, if anything, has being a twin in the art world taught you?
Stefania: We are so similar but so different. The line is blurred.
Valeria: We contribute to each other’s worlds deeply and organically, having the shared goal of expressing ourselves through what we do. Togetherness is key in any creative field; being exposed to the other and sharing means growing.
What twins do you relate to most?
Stefania: I have always felt our connection and bond were one of a kind. Being a twin is a privilege and a miracle.
Valeria: We were college students in the 1980s in New York. I loved the 1988 Wrigley’s Doublemint gum commercial. Often, people on the street called us out on that lyric. [“Double pleasure’s waiting for you!”]
Do you think being a twin pushed you to be more creative?
Stefania: We inspire and challenge each other constantly. It is a very dynamic back-and-forth. Our conversations are fun, creative, and full of vision.
Valeria: We naturally boost each other’s creativity. We constantly talk about what we love. We discuss taste in art, in fashion, in everything.
What is something people get wrong about twins?
Stefania: That they are the same person.
Valeria: The complexity.
What’s the rudest question people ask twins?
Stefania: It’s very annoying when people compare the two of us.
Valeria: Which one is the most intelligent or most beautiful?
If you had to curate an exhibition about your twin, what would the title be?
Stefania: “You Must Have a Dream.”
Valeria: “Don’t hold back! No compromise.”
Elliot and Erick Jiménez, photographers
Who’s the bigger critic?
Erick Jiménez: We somehow seem to take turns.
Elliot Jiménez: We’re both critical, but in different ways. It depends on the project.
Do you know other creative twins? How did you find each other?
Elliot: French-Cuban musicians Ibeyi. We’ve connected via Instagram. Both of our approaches to craft are rooted in our Cuban heritage.
What’s your theory for how you ended up in the same industry?
Erick: We’ve been inseparable since birth and share a lot of common interests, so it was only natural we’d pursue the same path.
Elliot: I think siblings in general can influence each other. We’re close and we leaned on one another early, so we naturally took this path together.
Who holds a grudge?
Erick: Perhaps me. I have worked on myself and used to hold grudges as a kid.
Elliot: Definitely Erick!
What’s your best twin mix-up story?
Erick: Elliot ended up in the hospital as me once because he didn’t have health insurance. So we shared insurance. This was many years ago!
Elliot: I did use his insurance once. Erick was so scared, he dropped me off and left. I was in terrible shape but thankfully, everything worked out fine. I won’t have to do this again, as I have my own insurance now.
What, if anything, has being a twin in the art world taught you?
Erick: It’s a double-edged sword. You will never have complete autonomy, but the benefits of having a creative partner and best friend far outweighs the cons. It’s like having two sets of eyes all the time.
Elliot: How lucky I am to have someone else to lean on, another set of eyes to work through things, and someone to bounce ideas off of. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, even when things get difficult and we disagree.
What twins do you relate to most?
Erick: There are a few, and it’s for different aspects of their relationship and experience: Twins Nell and Luke in Haunting of Hill House, Castor and Pollux [from the Greek myth], and the story of the Ibeyí in Afro-Cuban cosmology.
Do you think being a twin pushed you to be more creative?
Erick: It pushes us to think beyond and challenge our creativity in interesting ways that perhaps one would not realize while working individually.
Elliot: We were constantly compared or treated as one, which naturally made us want to push against that. This urged us to try things the other hadn’t; new looks, new ideas, and new directions. In hindsight, that back-and-forth probably made us more adventurous creatively than we might have been on our own.
Erick: That everything is the same with us. Even identical twins differ in fingerprints, immune systems, life experiences, and often in temperament and preferences.
Elliot: That all twins are as close as we are. Not every twin works together, shares the same career, or even the same interests. Even being identical twins, we aren’t always in sync.
What’s the rudest question people ask twins?
Erick: The rudest question I’ve received is too profane to share!
Elliot: We’ve been randomly pinched and then asked if the other twin felt it.
If you had to curate an exhibition about your twin, what’s the title?
Erick: “El Comandante (The Commander).”
Elliot: “The Advocate.”
Nikolai and Simon Haas, artists
Nikolai and Simon Haas, the artist duo known as the Haas Brothers, have made the act of creating together the foundation of their practice. Working across sculpture, design, and installation, the brothers have developed a singular artistic language, embracing shared authorship in whimsical design and vibrant color. Their Los Angeles studio has become an extension of that philosophy, and at one point, even housed three other twins. On September 27, they will open a solo (or duo, rather) show at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.
Can you read each other’s minds?
Simon Haas: We can read each other’s minds to an extent—we know each other so well that we know how the other will probably react. We do have many moments where each of us will independently come up with something, and tell each other at the same time.
Who’s the bigger critic?
Nikolai Haas: We’re both critical, and we rely on each other’s support and criticism. When we are both excited about the thing we are making, the work reaches a much higher standard. I think Simon is a lot smarter and more empathic than I am, so I’ll always trust his instincts. But I’m very emotive, and I work a lot, so I really need a filter.
Simon: I am! It’s not that I’m a grouch, I’m just wired to pick things apart. Niki has a much more fluid way of working and I am a step-by-step kind of person.
Do you know other creative twins? How did you find each other?
Nikolai: Twins do find each other. It’s almost like its own little subculture. We understand each other the second we meet because there is a universal twin experience. You won’t get it unless you’re a twin.
Simon: At one point, we had three twins, excluding us, working with us in our studio!
What’s your theory for how you ended up in the same industry?
Nikolai: We work seamlessly together and always have. You might as well ask how both of your feet started working together to move you around.
Simon: I think we actually tried to individuate and go our separate ways, but it just wasn’t going to happen. We did grow up in a household that was wildly creative, so it’s no surprise to me that we both wound up in this field. What’s great is that each of us has a very different approach to making work—we took our upbringing and used it in very different ways. Our work is a singular vision made from two very different points of view.
Who holds a grudge?
Nikolai: I think we both used to, but don’t any longer. We’re in our 40s now. A grudge will make us unhappy and sick. Luckily, a lot of our life recently has been about moving on and reconnecting with people we’ve been in fights with. It feels a whole lot better to eat some humble pie than to sit on a grudge for years and years.
Simon: I was a real grudge-holder, but as a sober person, I have learned that resentments will take me out. I do my best to turn it around quickly, but that’s practiced—not exactly natural to me.
What, if anything, has being a twin in the art world taught you?
Nikolai: Long-term relationships are worth nurturing even when things are hard. It’s also nice to be a pair—neither of us has to take the credit or responsibility alone. There’s almost an anonymity to “The Haas Brothers” that I appreciate in my personal life.
Simon: Shared authorship is amazing—I get to be proud of our work but I also get to look at it as a fan because I’m not the sole author. What I’ve learned more than anything is that you pick up more twins along the way, meaning other people who you rely on and trust with everything who become part of your identity. For example, CULTURED gave us our first magazine cover, so CULTURED is part of our identity.
What twins do you relate to most?
Nikolai: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Twins. [Laughs]
Do you think being a twin pushed you to be more creative?
Nikolai: Being twins just means having mutual creative support that helped us nurture bigger visions early on. A creative path was easy to fall into.
Simon: I’d say it has created an environment where creativity is easy—we have a safety net in one another and inspire each other.
What’s something people get wrong about twins?
Simon: That what is good for one will automatically be good for the other.
Nikolai: We don’t live together, and if you’re inviting us to work with you in another city, for god’s sake, don’t book us a shared hotel room! We’re adult men!
Have you ever let someone believe you were the other twin?
Nikolai: That never happens visually with people that actually know us. We look really different, but if someone doesn’t know us well, they’ll mix us up. I’ll let it slide, just to be polite.
Simon: I would if I could.
What’s the rudest question people ask twins?
Nikolai: Who’s the smart twin, who’s the hot twin, et cetera, et cetera… I don’t love being pitted against Simon.
Simon: I honestly don’t get many rude questions about it. I think identical twins might get more of these.
If you had to curate an exhibition about your twin, what’s the title? Don’t hold back.
Nikolai: “My Brilliant Twin.”
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