The Standout Presentations Not to Miss at NOMAD Hamptons

In just under a decade, NOMAD has distinguished itself as a globetrotting showcase whose breathtaking presentations of art and collectible design draw much of their power from the far-flung places that host them. Previous editions have occupied a 14th-century Carthusian monastery in Capri, Karl Lagerfeld’s former villa in Monaco, and a decommissioned airport terminal in Abu Dhabi. Its latest destination marks another fitting chapter. The presentation’s long-awaited Hamptons Edition has officially arrived at the Watermill Center in Water Mill, New York, the celebrated institution founded by late director Robert Wilson that has championed artistic exploration through residencies, performances, and cross-disciplinary exchange for more than 30 years. That spirit aligns naturally with NOMAD’s site-specific approach, while the East End’s rich artistic legacy offers an ideal backdrop for its inaugural American edition. 

“The Watermill Center is one of those rare places where architecture, landscape, and artistic experimentation come together with extraordinary coherence,” says NOMAD founder and director Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte. “For NOMAD, it offers an opportunity to present art and design in direct dialogue with a site whose identity is inseparable from creativity, research, and exchange.” Across 23 galleries and an ambitious slate of special projects, visitors will encounter museum-caliber works, newly commissioned installations, and historical treasures that spill from the Watermill Center’s galleries into its gardens and wooded paths through Sunday, June 28. 

Below are the presentations that captured our attention. 

Botanical Series by Sydney Albertini presented by Sisley Paris 

Few artists capture the exuberance of the natural world with the vitality of Amagansett painter Sydney Albertini. Presented in partnership with Sisley Paris, her Botanical Series fills NOMAD with vivid painted drawings that weave lush foliage, twisting vines, and richly layered color into imagined landscapes inspired by travel and observation. The works press beyond the edge of the picture plane, hinting at a living world that continues beyond view. The collaboration also speaks to Sisley Paris’s enduring embrace of phytocosmetology—the botanical philosophy that has guided the French skincare house’s plant-based research since its founding in 1976. 

Gaetano Pesce: The Oman Collection by Kalei NYC with Gaetano Pesce Estate 

One of Gaetano Pesce’s final bodies of work, the Oman Collection grew from an unexpected commission by Omani fragrance house Amouage. After chief creative officer Renaud Salmon sent the Italian master a parcel of frankincense resin, Pesce traveled to the Middle Eastern country’s UNESCO-listed Wadi Dawkah to study the ancient Boswellia sacra trees that produce the prized aromatic sap. Now, gallery Kalei NYC presents the Oman Chair and the monumental Oman Throne, whose branching silhouettes echo the sculptural character of the frankincense tree. Cast in luminous transparent resin awash in saturated color, the works reveal Pesce’s enduring curiosity and his remarkable ability to draw fresh inspiration from the natural world. 

Dominique Nabokov Photography, curated by Sophie Dries 

Dominique Nabokov spent decades documenting Wilson’s creative universe with the candor of a close confidante. The French photographer chronicled the Watermill Center, Wilson’s homes, his remarkable collections, and the artists in his orbit, offering a disarmingly personal portrait of one of contemporary culture’s great visionaries. Curated by French architect Sophie Dries, this exhibition pairs Nabokov’s photographs with works from Wilson’s own collection, revealing the people, interiors, and objects that defined his daily life. Installed at the Watermill Center library, it offers a rare glimpse inside the world Wilson built over a lifetime. Many of the works presented, including several unpublished or rarely seen photographs, are available for acquisition through the Robert Wilson Estate and Trust during the fair.  

JK Art & Design Projects  

Inspired by an Indonesian sandstone funerary marker from Wilson’s collection, “Crossing Thresholds” honors the late director’s lifelong fascination with ceremonial objects and their cultural significance. The presentation by the newly christened Southampton gallery gathers historical and contemporary works by the prestigious likes of Liz Collins, Carmen D’Apollonio, Casey McCafferty, Sergio Rodrigues, Maria Pergay, Andrea Zambelli, and others that collectively ruminate on ritual and transformation. Among the highlights is Darcy Miro’s Jed (2025), whose molten bronze appears to flow across a ruby-red glass vessel, revealing the Brooklyn metalsmith’s remarkable command of contrasting materials.  

Nomad Sculpture Grounds—Open-Air Group Show 

Across the Watermill Center’s lawns, gardens, and winding paths, NOMAD’s outdoor sculpture exhibition transforms the landscape into an open-air gallery. Among the highlights is The Echoes of Our Dreams, a new sound sculpture by Galerie Creative Mind artist Sébastien Léon that layers ambient sound, machine language, and altered birdsong into an ever-changing sonic environment. Conceived as the first work in a future network of interconnected sculptures, it considers artificial intelligence through the language of sound. Elsewhere, visitors encounter monumental works by Wendell Castle, Fitzhugh Karol, Richard Hudson, Mia Fonssagrives Solow, Anton Bakker, John Clement, Helena Chastel, and Katya Emelyanova. 

Gallery Fumi 

Gallery Fumi is concluding its New York residency at Galerie56 with a presentation that reflects the London collectible design stalwart’s longstanding commitment to exceptional craftsmanship and material invention. Among the highlights are Kobina Adusah’s monumental ceramic sculptures, whose carved patterns draw on ancestry, oral traditions, and spiritual knowledge. Nearby, a coffee table by Jeremy Anderson pairs hand-painted terracotta tiles with a cast bronze base of clustered ball feet, each element fabricated in the artist’s Brooklyn studio. Charlotte Kingsnorth, meanwhile, rebodied a salvaged midcentury armchair frame entirely in cloud-like faux fur upholstery, reflecting her belief that furniture should have a soul. 

Armani / Unveiled 

Few creative partnerships bridged fashion, theater, and art as naturally as Giorgio Armani’s relationship with Wilson. Their collaborations ranged from Armani’s costumes for the director’s productions of Susan Sontag’s The Lady from the Sea to Wilson’s scenography for the landmark Giorgio Armani retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2000. That dialogue resumes with Armani/Unveiled, which debuted at NOMAD St. Moritz this year and returns in the Hamptons with an exhibition curated by Object & Thing founder Abby Bangser. Commissioned works by Galerie Creative Mind floral artist Ariel Dearie and basket maker Jonathan Kline will appear alongside iconic Armani/Casa furnishings in Murano glass and Limoges porcelain, while 13 reissued looks from Armani/Archivio trace the evolution of the house’s enduring style.  

Robert Wilson Objects 

Chairs often served as recurring characters in Wilson’s experimental productions, and he amassed a personal collection that numbered well over 1,000 examples. Curated by Noah Khoshbin, this presentation gathers several seminal pieces that occupied the director’s imagination. Highlights include the Parzival Sofa (1987), a striking chaise of stainless steel mesh layered over a maple frame that Wilson made for his production of Parzival at Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, and the Clementine Hunter Rocker, conceived for his 2013 opera Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter, which celebrated the beloved self-taught American painter.  

Rooted Movements by Abu Dhabi Culture 

Though oceans apart, Abu Dhabi and the Hamptons share histories of migration, exchange, and life shaped by the water. “Rooted Movements,” developed in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi, brings together Emirati artists Afra Al Dhaheri, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, and Azza Al Qubaisi in a thoughtful dialogue across those landscapes. Al Dhaheri’s suspended rope installations draw on the symbolic qualities of hair, while Al Sayegh’s ceramics take inspiration from the life cycle of the date palm. Al Qubaisi’s sculptural works distill organic motifs into lyrical compositions that reflect on identity, and place through the natural world.