Markus Haase in his studio in Hanover, Germany. Photo: Henning Scheffen. Courtesy of Markus Haase Studio and Todd Merrill Studio.





Translating Artistic Genius Into Exotic Sculptural Furniture and Lighting



by Benjamin Genocchio



Todd Merrill is proud to say he is the one who ‘discovered’ Markus Haase. But he also admits it didn’t happen in the usual way he finds talented makers in the world of contemporary design.


It was 2014, and Haase, a 33-year-old German stone sculptor living in New York, was working on a construction site in SoHo to pay the bills. On a lunch break, he saw some unusual furniture in the window of Merrill’s Bleeker Street gallery. “I found him lying on the floor under a table,” the dealer recalls, with a wry laugh. “When I asked him what on earth he was doing he remarked, ‘looking at how it is made.’” Haase told Merrill he was a sculptor and could make anything he had in the showroom. In response, Merrill, slightly annoyed by what he thought was arrogance, challenged Haase to make a table.


Markus Haase, Bleached Ash and Onyx Chandelier, USA, 2017; Bronze, Walnut, and Limestone Dining Table, USA, 2018 ; Faceted Bronze Dining Chair, USA, 2018 . Photo: Simon Leung. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio.



“Two weeks later he showed up at the gallery with a prototype for a new side table made of laminated, expertly carved stone and wood,” Merrill recalls. He was so impressed he took the table to his booth at a fair at the New York Park Avenue Armory and immediately sold it. By the end of the fair he had orders for more. “That was my first commission as a designer and maker of furniture,” says Haase.


Haase’s little table for Merrill was titled the “Crossover” table for its fluid combination of interlocking pieces of curved laminated stone and wood. “It is still commissionable,” says Merrill, who just returned from the Nomad Fair in St. Moritz, where he showed Haase’s Sthenos blackened console with bronze feet, as well as his Cloud III chandelier in bronze and onyx. Among sales in progress from the fair is a commission by a private client for a new lighting design.


Haase is exclusively represented by Merrill worldwide and most often, these days, he works on commission — right now he is working on a lighting commission for the cinema of a megayacht. He works in Hanover, Germany, where he has a 6,000-square-foot studio and team of eight studio assistants where they make 30 or more design pieces a year, depending on their size and complexity. He also works without the aid of outside fabricators, which distinguishes him from other makers, most of whom tend to outsource some components during the production process.



Left: Markus Haase, The Crossover Table, USA, 2014. Photo: Simon Leung. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio. Right: Markus Haase, Sculptural Sconce in Polished Bronze and Onyx, DE, 2023. Photo: Simon Leung. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio.


Haase does his own bronze casting, stone carving, wood turning and even makes his own cast glass for designs, a skill which is not easy to master. “The difference with Markus is that he came to furniture and lighting design with 25 years of experience as a sculptor, and he can make anything,” Merrill says. “I represent a lot of makers and he is the real deal. He’s an artist making furniture and lighting,” Merrill says, “and not the other way around.”


Interior designers are in agreement with Merrill. Francis Nicdao, Principal & Chief Creative Officer of New York City interior design firm Pembrooke & Ives describes Haase as an “extraordinary talent and a truly inspiring collaborator.” He continues: “I’ve had the privilege of working with him from the very inception of a project to its breathtaking installation — where he even crafted his own scaffolding to install his own art. His skilled, artisanal touch, deep reverence for the finest materials, and his gift for creating one-of-a-kind forms invite admiration from every angle, whether you’re standing close or viewing from afar,” Nicdao says.


Markus Haase, Bronze and Onyx Circlet Chandelier II, DE, 2024. Photo: Simon Leung. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio.


Markus Haase, Sthenos Blackened Console with Bronze Feet, DE, 2025. Photo: Markus Haase Studio. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio.


Haase began his career studying to become an electrician before he gave it up, and apprenticed with a master stonemason in Germany. He worked for over a decade as an artistic stone carver, repairing and restoring stone elements of churches and other historic buildings across Europe before deciding it was time to devote himself entirely to his own artwork. He moved to New York, set up a studio in Brooklyn, and dedicated himself to making minimal stone sculptures with clean lines and harmonious forms.


Haase’s decades of experience as a sculptor (and electrician) are evident in everything from the expert treatment of materials to the technical perfection and flawless functionality of his pieces. “I spend way too much time and money laboring to get things to be just right, perfect,” the artist says. But in truth, he doesn’t mind because it is the artistic challenge that keeps him engaged and agile, he says.


His early Bang series of cantilevered, hand-carved wood and stone laminated consoles shaped like a gun are a good example of his dedication to detail and to craftsmanship. “This is an amazing piece of design,” Merrill says. “Smooth undulations of walnut somehow appear as malleable as drapery, while giving off an overall sense of movement and speed to mimic a bullet from a gun.”








Markus Haase in his studio in Hanover,

Germany with his studio manager. 
Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio

Left & Above: Markus Haase 
at work in his studio.
Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio


Even more complex designs followed as Haase mastered the technique of stack lamination — combining multiple layers of stone and wood to create a larger block from which forms are carved. For the Aeolian series of side tables and low tables, inspired by ripples in windblown sand, the artist created delicately ribbed and undulating carved wood forms made of bleached ash or shou sugi ban ash (an ancient Japanese finishing technique that preserves wood by charring it with fire), with fluidly carved marble tops mirroring the base. The pieces look like they are melting before your eyes.


Haase’s big breakthrough as a designer began in 2015 with his custom light sculptures, chiefly pendants and sconces. Merrill accurately describes them as “referencing various natural forms such as antlers, stalactites, cliffsides or ocean waves,” though the inspiration for the series was a bit more prosaic: Haase had taken an unfinished chandelier design to Merrill for review but it broke, revealing a single interesting-looking piece that the two of them decided would make an unusual sconce. They were right.


Markus Haase, Cloud Series Light Sculpture “Stratus”, USA, 2021. Photo: Colin Miller. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio.


The resulting Sculptural Sconce features an elegantly elongated asymmetrical “butterfly” shape that gained attention from design critics, designers and collectors, and the gallery was inundated with commissions. Today it has morphed into multiple light formats and is available in custom shapes, sizes and in woods, stones and metal, including walnut, bleached ash, and cast bronze. “The extraordinary thing about Haase’s lighting is the way he uses stone to diffuse light, which is unique to his work,” Merrill says. He partly attributes this to Haase’s understanding of advances in LED lighting.


Haase has continued innovating with lighting and his latest groups of sculptural lighting, the Cloud Series and the Circlet Series extend his embrace of advancements in LED lighting and combination of metal and sculptured stone. “With a strong focus on asymmetry, Haase is now creating faceted light structures that catch and reflect light while seeming to defy gravity with a surprising weightlessness. His unique lighting designs begin with a hand-carved foam model, which is then cast in his studio, using a self-developed technique. Stone — onyx or alabaster — is handcarved with undulating lines mimicking the bronze “setting” of the work while diffusing dimmable LEDs,” Merrill explains.


Courthauld Commission, Markus Haase, Cloud Light Sculpture, 2022. Photo: Colin Miller. Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio


Clients love the new lighting designs, making him one of the most in-demand makers in the custom lighting market right now. One of Haase’s monumental Cloud Series, “Stratus”, was commissioned for The Cortland, a new waterfront condominium project located at 555 West 22nd Street in New York designed by the esteemed firms Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Olson Kundig. The nearly 30-foot-long by 8-foot-wide bronze, onyx and LED suspended sculpture fills the upper atmosphere of the double-height lobby, imbuing the space with a sense of drama and grandeur.


Designer Holly Hunt, has also worked with Haase and has nothing but praise for the artist. “My team and I at House of Hunt enjoy working with Markus Haase through Todd Merrill. Recently we purchased two custom Circlet light fixtures in cast bronze and onyx, with a very tight deadline. Amazingly, these fixtures were delivered on time while maintaining quality craftsmanship and obviously excellent client service. Installing these rather complex beautiful sculptures hanging in the air turned out to be easy, thanks to their team’s clear documentation and guidance. These stunning light fixtures were integrated seamlessly into the home.”