At Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, NOMAD’s First U.S. Edition Found an Ideal Stage

There’s a constant across NOMAD editions: a spatial storytelling that turns curated showcases of art and design into contextualized narratives. From Monaco to St. Moritz, Capri to Abu Dhabi, NOMAD’s nomadic format has transformed unique historical locations into destinations for art, design and singular creation. Most of the creators exhibiting at the fair resist easy distinctions, embracing practices that move fluidly across categories and are often open to alternative systems of circulation, from special commissions to brand activations. For its U.S. debut, NOMAD could not have found a more suitable stage than Robert Wilson’s iconic Watermill Center, establishing a context-specific dialogue with the experimental, interdisciplinary nature of the center and the eclectic, multilayered collection Wilson gathered over the years, now housed in his apartment and across its spaces. “Robert Wilson created a place unlike any other, where theater, visual art, architecture, performance and experimentation coexist; that spirit feels remarkably aligned with NOMAD,” founder Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte told Observer in a recent interview.

After Wilson’s passing last July, Bellavance-Lecompte chose to frame NOMAD’s inaugural U.S. edition as a deliberate homage to Wilson’s artistic legacy and his approach to human creative expression. Visiting the fair gave one access to Wilson’s world: intimate guided tours of his apartment revealed a singular, encyclopedic and anthropologically attuned approach to collecting, with no distinction between high and low—an ethos perfectly reflected in his scenographies, his stagings and the curation of his everyday life.

Admittedly, NOMAD Hampton’s opening day felt more like an industry-centered gathering of design-world insiders, joined by a few curious locals, but the fair grew busier over the weekend as New Yorkers began arriving from the city. The more than 30 exhibitors presenting in the special venue were split evenly between American and international galleries, with most coming from Europe, where the NOMAD brand is already well established, and the Middle East, where it launched last year in the decommissioned Terminal 1 of Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport.

Ascending Robert Wilson’s monumental staircase, visitors were welcomed by an enveloping rope installation by Emirati artist Afra Al Dhaheri—a simultaneous act of symbolic and physical embodiment and disembodiment, tracing an ever-evolving sensory and emotional relationship with the space. The installation is part of “Rooted Movements,” a capsule showcase presented in collaboration with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, which brings together three Emirati women artists: Al Dhaheri, Zuhoor Al Sayegh and Azza Al Qubaisi. Organized in separate clusters, Al Sayegh and Al Qubaisi’s bodies of work engage with the notion of inherited knowledge through materials and handmaking, considering how identities, materials and cultural knowledge travel across distance while remaining connected to their origins. Al Sayegh’s ceramic sculptures draw from the life cycle of the date palm, particularly the offshoot that separates from the mother tree to establish roots of its own. Al Qubaisi’s works abstract forms from the natural world, translating layering, growth and evolution into sculptural meditations on identity, memory and place as a living process shaped by adaptation and exchange.

Moving through the space, visitors encountered established names in the design world, including London-based Gallery FUMI, which presented work by a globally diverse group that included Rowan Mersh, Shinta Nakajima, Jeremy Anderson, Jesse Schlesinger, Kobina Adusah, Voukenas Petrides, Charlotte Kingsnorth, JAMESPLUMB, Francesco Perini, Max Lamb, Lukas Wegwerth with Corinna Dehn, Sam Orlando Miller, Glithero and Johannes Nagel. Though it was the gallery’s first time in the Hamptons, they quickly understood why the area has such a strong community of collectors, architects and creatives, Valerio Capo told Observer. “Despite the challenges of exhibiting in such a unique site, we’ve had an exceptional response, particularly to works by our youngest artist, Ghanaian ceramicist Kobina Adusah, as well as Max Lamb, Jeremy Anderson and Lukas Wegwerth. We’ll leave with a real sense that this inaugural Hamptons edition has been a success, and we’d be delighted to return.”

Further on was veteran but newly reconceived art gallery Robilant, which brought some of the most expensive works on view, including two prime Andy Warhols, a large mirror by Pistoletto and delightful Fontana ceramics, alongside more design-oriented gems, including the glass creations of Tristano di Robilant and one of François-Xavier Lalanne’s iconic and highly sought-after Moutons. Coming from a Greek collection where it had been held for years, it was priced at $400,000—a fair figure, considering that earlier this month two Moutons from the collection of design connoisseur Emmanuel de Bayser sold for $576,000 and $384,500, surpassing their $350,000 high estimate. The gallery confirmed the sale of three works priced at over $500,000 by Sunday evening.

In the Watermill Center’s archives, NOMAD Hamptons unfolded as a series of presentations moving between art, design, photography and lived space. Curated by Sophie Dries, Dominique Nabokov Photography’s presentation documented decades of friendship, collecting and artistic life between New York and Watermill, tracing Robert Wilson’s world through the spaces and people around him. Complementing this, Bob Wilson’s Works, curated by Noah Khoshbin, brought together furniture, objects and archival materials associated with Wilson’s universe, including his chairs and rare glass works made in Marseille, available in limited editions. Particularly revealing was “Gio Ponti × Robert Wilson: Correspondence,” a special presentation exploring the ongoing creative exchange between the two, who shared the conviction that design was simply another form of creative human expression and a reimagining of the world, on a par with art and architecture.

Nearby, New York-based jewelry house Tabayer presented its Oera Still Stone Series, a capsule of sculptural jewelry conceived as contemporary amulets. Drawing inspiration from Isamu Noguchi, Barbara Hepworth and devotional objects dedicated to Inanna, the pieces combine 18k gold and natural diamonds with carved stones including jasper, lapis lazuli, chrysoprase and chalcedony, introducing color, volume and asymmetry while extending the dialogue between abstraction and form.

Renowned for its scouting of some of the most compelling designers working today, The Future Perfect brought together a roster of creators whose work is rooted in nature and domestic life, spanning sculptural seating, lighting, vessels and objects in both unique and open editions. Highlights included new works by Chris Wolston—from additions to his Nalgona Chair series to a bronze Betulia mirror and a reimagined Aurora Sofa—as well as pieces by Chen Chen and Kai Williams, Cody Hoyt, Lindsey Adelman, Piet Hein Eek, Olivia Cognet and others, in a presentation that treated design as both expressive and livable. For Laura Young, managing director of The Future Perfect, the fair proved a valuable opportunity to connect with longtime clients and many new visitors in a more intimate setting. While pleased to place several works, she said what stood out most was the quality of the conversations: “There was genuine curiosity about the artists, thoughtful engagement with the work, and an opportunity to introduce The Future Perfect to a broader audience.”

One of the absolute highlights of the boutique fair was GLIF, an Istanbul-based architecture and design collective presenting their latest capsule series “Altered Heritage.” In what can be described as a structural and philosophical act, the collective repurposes, redesigns and reinvents fragments of historical furniture—antique and vintage pieces purchased at auction—with architectural interventions that give them a second life as one-of-a-kind contemporary works. Blending antique wood, marble, forged brass, stainless steel and leather, the works preserve material memory while introducing new structural purpose. Some pieces, like Monad, stage the tension between past and present, using metal both to emphasize and mend the fracture of time; others take a more romantic and nostalgic approach, engaging with traditional techniques such as pointillé brass to recombine fragments of history, as in Circo Locco and Naginata.

Nearby, Cairo-based gallery Le LAB staged a soulful cabinet of curiosities with “Through a Collector’s Eye: Hamptons Edition,” co-curated by founder Rasheed Kamel and Russell Piccione. Rather than separating art, design, craft and sculpture by category, the presentation allowed objects from different geographies and eras to speak through connection, proximity, shared materials and subconscious symbolic memory, combining contemporary art, ceramics, textiles and sculptural objects from varied lineages, including works by Dina Danish, Huda Lutfi and Mohamed Monaiseer, presented in collaboration with Gypsum Gallery. Among the absolute highlights were Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Pain Relief drawings, created by the Sudanese artist while in prison and presented in collaboration with Salon 94, priced from $18,000 to $30,000.

On the lower floor, Café Kalei, a new concept space and coffee shop with outposts in New York and Dubai, brought the design of the radicals, presenting a colorful and vibrant selection of archival and contemporary pieces in conversation with the spirit of Memphis, GUFRAM and Gaetano Pesce. Further along the corridor, in Wilson’s book-filled library, Café Kalei also staged a special presentation of Pesce’s works, including archival pieces inspired by the designer’s travels to Oman, with the throne-like forms, saturated color and playful material experimentation that defined his language. “The Oman Collection” represents one of Pesce’s final and most poetic explorations, and the NOMAD presentation served as a preview for two unseen limited-edition projects the group plans to launch during the Abu Dhabi edition, including fragrance-infused design objects.

On the other side of the library, nomadic project Object&Things brought together a group of ceramic works alongside a limited-edition lighting project: Disco Vision lamps by Christian Wassmann, who designed the original shelves for the very library in which the presentation took place. Originally produced in a special edition of 12 to support the Watermill Center, each lamp incorporates upcycled LaserDiscs—a pre-DVD film format—containing a movie set in New York City, creating a shimmering symbolic galaxy of the storytelling possibilities the city can inspire. Another highlight from Object&Things was F Taylor Colantonio’s cartapesta vessels, playfully imitating both the veining of marble’s geological temporality and the historical weight of classical references through the lightness of a more folkloric papermaking tradition.

A spotlight on Mexican craftsmanship came with the joint presentation by UNNO and K’AB JUUN, two galleries based in Mexico City and New York, respectively, that work closely with designers and makers across Mexico and broader Latin America. K’AB JUUN, which recently opened in New York, brought a richly material presentation rooted in Mexican craft traditions, with works spanning volcanic stone, onyx, bronze, leather, wood, shells, silver nitrate, resin and beadwork. Among the highlights were creations by Caterina Moretti’s Peca Studio, including the gold-leafed Aurum Cabinet and the Rito Lectern, made with Alan Rojas in Tzalam wood and tezontle. “Celebrating Mexican contemporary art and design is at the heart of what we do,” K’AB JUUN co-founder Ilana Goldberg told Observer, adding that NOMAD’s intimate format allowed the pieces to find “a home among people who bring that same spirit of intention to everything they create and collect.”

Several presentations expanded the dialogue between historical design, contemporary craft and material experimentation. Maison Gerard made its first appearance at NOMAD with a presentation reflecting the gallery’s evolution from its original Art Deco focus, since its founding in 1994, toward a broader mix of vintage and contemporary design. At the center was an important grouping of furniture by French design duo Guillerme et Chambron, whose warm and functional modernism was evident in armchairs, an expansive sectional sofa and rare multitasking desks. These historical works were placed in dialogue with contemporary pieces such as Barry’s hand-formed bronze Blade sconces, Bareff’s sculptural ceramic lighting and furniture, Serfaty’s bronze console and sculptural table lamp, Silva’s monumental ceramic urn and Egan’s sculptural furnishings and lighting. Gallery owner Benoist F. Drut confirmed that their participation created an opportunity to reconnect with longtime clients and meet new people. “It has been a wonderful discovery,” he said. “In just the first few days, we’ve been impressed by the steady flow of engaged visitors and the genuine curiosity people have about the work on display.” The more relaxed and informal atmosphere, he noted, fostered deeper and more thoughtful exchanges among dealers, artists, designers and cultural institutions. While Maison Gerard does not disclose sales details, the gallery confirmed multiple placements by Sunday with both private collectors and their decorators, and received promising inquiries from international cultural institutions about artists in its program.

In the next room, Tristan Hoare Gallery—a London gallery whose program centers on beauty and craftsmanship across media—paired sculpture by Nicholas Lefebvre, inspired by scavenged ancient and vintage materials and later translated into bronze, with Kaori Tatebayashi’s delicate ceramic and bronze flowers, priced from roughly $8,500 to $35,000. The booth also included textiles by British artist Suzzy Catalet with a modernist sensibility reminiscent of Léger, as well as works by French artist Parme Baratier, who creates his own herbarium through unique vintage-looking botanical prints. Baratier grows the plants in his own garden, harvests them and fuses them together to form a canvas, then prints a photographic image of the same plant and completes it with plant-derived ink.

Tristan Hoare is also representing Hamptons-based artist Sydney Albertini, who showed a new series of works in the Dining Room, created in collaboration with the French skincare brand Sisley Paris and inspired by the natural world. Originating from the artist’s immersive experience in Costa Rica, where Albertini felt entirely enveloped by the landscape, the series features vital entanglements of a lush, organic world of relentless growth, density and interdependence, translated into articulated patterns, chromatic intensity and layered forms at the threshold between figuration and abstraction.

Jewelry also played a significant role in the fair’s expanded notion of art and design. Among the standout discoveries was IPPOLITA Rostagno’s “Matter and Hand Gold,” a showcase tracing gold’s 150-million-year journey from earth to tool, hand and body. Working with the nuggets’ irregular contours and raw beauty, Ippolita Rostagno and Piotrek Panszczyk transformed them into sculptural jewelry that retains gold’s raw presence while translating it into adornment, with prices ranging from roughly $5,000 to $50,000. Centered on rare natural gold nuggets from the Yukon’s historic Mayo Mining District, the presentation paired jewelry with an art installation of old mining tools, emphasizing the geological and historical contexts from which these creations emerged.

Also outstanding were the creations of Brazilian designer Silvia Furmanovich, with jewelry and accessories made through ancient and native techniques, including pieces inlaid with wood recovered from the Amazon or incorporating horsehair paired with precious gold and diamonds. Several pieces reportedly sold on the first day to Hamptons collectors for $6,000-9,000.

Close by, Sorgin Gallery from San Sebastián presented a mix of vintage 1960s design, contemporary Brazilian designers and jewelry, including works by Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, Hugo França, Rodrigo Simão and Charo Casteres. Next to it, Spaceless Gallery focused on the connection between nature and craft through French and American artists working in marble, bronze and other noble materials. Standout pieces included marble and stone sculptures by Gabriel Sobin, inspired by organic forms and the materials’ inherent properties, priced between $8,000 and $15,000. As part of a salon-style hanging, the gallery also presented new vintage-inflected photographic works by L.A.-based artist Lara Porzak, their intriguing suspension between abstraction and figuration and between time and space carrying the temporal texture of a past age—a preview of the artist’s solo presentation at Aspen Art Fair.

In the more airy main rehearsal space, an expansive showcase of Todd Merrill Studio’s roster was anchored by an 11-foot-tall sculpture by Jamaican artist Laura Facey, whose practice transforms felled Jamaican hardwoods into increasingly abstract and spiritual forms that honor the island’s landscape and enduring spirit. “We’ve had a very successful fair at NOMAD, with strong sales and commissions throughout,” Merrill confirmed to Observer, adding that they were already looking forward to returning.

Nearby were the creations of French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, whose work—inspired by natural forces and addressing larger questions—carries specific conceptual and philosophical content that blurs the line between art and design. Working across limited editions, unique works and a significant number of commissions, his practice often reflects on individuality, circumstance and the larger systems that shape human fate. Among the strongly conceptual works on view was State of the World, a group of black sculptural pieces that translate population data and age pyramids from two-dimensional information into three-dimensional form, giving abstract statistics a more spatially revealing presence. Many of Lehanneur’s works draw from the different states of water as a metamorphic universal element defined by movement and transformation—an idea that translated here into a compelling ceramic installation rendering, through varying colors, textures and glazing, the shifting hues of seawater in different parts of the world. Prices ranged from roughly $12,000 to $75,000.

Moving with equal fluidity across materials, art, design and sound is Sébastien Léon, a French-born, New York-based artist who has transformed himself from creative director to designer and artist. Located in the outdoor space, his sound sculpture and installation The Echoes of Our Dreams created an evolving sonic landscape of ambient sound, machine language and transformed birdsong. Inviting close encounters with both the boundaries and affinities between natural and artificial forms of communication, the piece is the first in a future network of interconnected sculptures, prompting reflection on the relationship between the natural world, humanity and the rise of A.I. Léon’s work was one of many outdoor installations comprising NOMAD’s Sculpture Grounds – Open-Air Group Show, a curated constellation of large-scale works installed across gardens, pathways and outdoor gathering spaces.

The NOMAD formula worked. Its informal format encouraged personal encounters with objects and their makers, while brand activations—including a picnic lunch by Giorgio Armani and a convivial forest gathering supported by Sisley—helped cultivate an atmosphere of spontaneous exchange among different creative communities united by a shared love of aesthetic and symbolic storytelling. Over the weekend, the boutique fair also brought the local Hamptons community into contact with exhibitors from around the world in a setting relaxed enough to translate, naturally, into sales and commissions, or simply into meaningful connections that may develop over time—which is, after all, one of the purposes of any fair. Like design itself, NOMAD moves to a different, more purposeful rhythm than the art world: slower, perhaps, but also more dynamic, more personal and more attuned to open conversation between creators, disciplines and their market, allowing new opportunities for creative production and circulation to emerge organically across industry.

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