NOMAD Hamptons: The Galleries and Presentations That Defined the Debut
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NOMAD Hamptons, the itinerant design fair's first American edition, held to a premise the platform has followed since its founding in 2017: the setting comes before the programme, and the architecture shapes everything that follows. Previous editions have unfolded in a former clinic in St. Moritz, a historic villa in Monaco, a 15th-century palazzo in Venice and a decommissioned airport in Abu Dhabi. Founder and director Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte (whose vision for the platform we explored in depth here) has always understood that the most meaningful encounters between objects and people happen when place is taken seriously.
For its US debut, NOMAD found a setting entirely equal to that ambition. The Watermill Center was founded in 1992 by theatre director Robert Wilson on ten acres of Shinnecock ancestral territory on Long Island's East End, its grounds threaded with pine forest and standing stones, its buildings holding Wilson's own collection of art and artefacts. Less an arts institution than a living argument for what creativity can be when given space, time and genuine freedom, it lent the fair something no convention hall could: atmosphere with a history. From 25 to 28 June 2026, more than 30 international galleries, designers, artists and cultural initiatives gathered here for four days of site-specific presentations spanning collectible design, contemporary and modern art, fine jewellery and architecture.
What made NOMAD Hamptons exceptional was not any single presentation but the coherence of the whole. A fair that felt, from first to last, like a conversation rather than a commodity.
Rooted Movements, Abu Dhabi Culture | NOMAD Hamptons 2026
Rooted Movements, Abu Dhabi Culture | NOMAD Hamptons 2026
Rooted Movements - Abu Dhabi Culture
The most culturally ambitious presentation at NOMAD Hamptons arrived from an unexpected direction. Developed in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi, Rooted Movements brought together three Emirati artists, Afra Al Dhaheri, Zuhoor Al Sayegh and Azza Al Qubaisi, in an exhibition set within the grounds of the Watermill.
Drawing on the symbolic languages of hair, rope, palm offshoots, weaving and traditional craft, their works explored movement not as rupture but as a condition for growth, proposing that belonging is shaped not by remaining still but by what we carry with us as we move through the world. Between Abu Dhabi and the Hamptons, the dialogue felt genuine and necessary.
Gallery FUMI
The Future Perfect
The Galleries
Gallery FUMI - London
Established in 2008 by Sam Pratt and Valerio Capo, Gallery FUMI has built one of the most consistently rigorous programmes in contemporary collectible design. For NOMAD Hamptons, the gallery brought together an international roster that included Rowan Mersh, Max Lamb, JAMESPLUMB, Charlotte Kingsnorth, Jeremy Anderson and Johannes Nagel, among others. Works that united traditional craftsmanship with contemporary material thinking in a presentation entirely suited to the Watermill's charged environment. One of the fair's most complete and satisfying showings.
The Future Perfect - New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco
Founded by David Alhadeff, The Future Perfect has long championed experimental contemporary design with an assurance that few galleries in America can match. Its NOMAD Hamptons presentation brought together works by Chen Chen & Kai Williams and John Hogan, exploring transformation, perception and material innovation through sculptural furniture, functional objects and glass works. An anchor presence at the fair and a reminder of why The Future Perfect remains one of the most important galleries working in this space today.
Maison Gerard
GLIF
Maison Gerard - New York
New York's leading source for French Art Deco, furniture and objets d'art, Maison Gerard presented a characteristically generous survey spanning sculpture, painting, lighting and collectible design. Artists included Guy Bareff, Niamh Barry, Ayala Serfaty, Bella Silva and Marino Di Teana, alongside furniture by the French design duo Guillerme et Chambron. A grounding presence in an edition that consistently rewarded serious looking.
GLIF - Habif Mimarlık - Istanbul
Developed within Habif Architects, one of Istanbul's most established architectural practices, GLIF approaches collectible design through the lens of architecture itself. Its NOMAD Hamptons presentation, Altered Heritage, brought together a series of one-of-a-kind works created through interventions into historical furniture, an Italian vitrine, a Joseon-era Korean chest, an Edwardian chest of drawers and a Korean teak cabinet, each transformed through the introduction of antique wood, marble, stainless steel, forged brass, leather and glass. The result was something that resisted easy categorisation, neither restoration nor reinvention but something more considered than either. Objects that carry their own histories while speaking an entirely contemporary material language. One of the most quietly radical propositions at the fair.
Leila Heller Gallery
Todd Merrill Studio
Leila Heller Gallery - Dubai & New York
For more than four decades, Leila Heller Gallery has championed artists from the Middle East and beyond, building a dialogue between regional and international artistic practices that has few equivalents in the global gallery landscape. At NOMAD Hamptons, the gallery presented Spectra, an exhibition inspired by Robert Wilson's interdisciplinary vision and featuring works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, Dale Chihuly, Ran Hwang, Reza Derakshani and Kouros Maghsoudi, among others. With spaces in both Dubai and New York, Leila Heller occupies a rare position in the art world. Its presence at NOMAD felt particularly resonant given the fair's ongoing commitment to cultural exchange between the Gulf and the West.
Todd Merrill Studio - New York
Todd Merrill Studio presented a salon-style installation bringing together contemporary design and fine art in one of the fair's most immersive formats. The golden thread running through it was Laura Facey's monumental sculpture Golden Tree, which anchored the room with quiet authority, alongside works by Markus Haase, Draga & Aurel and Maarten Vrolijk. A specialist in American studio furniture and contemporary collectible design, Todd Merrill brought some of the most distinctly American work in the fair. A fitting contribution to NOMAD's first US edition.
Botanical Series, Sydney Albertini — presented by Sisley Paris
The Oman Collection — Gaetano Pesce, presented by Kalei NYC
Special Presentations
Botanical Series, Sydney Albertini - presented by atmosphere and SISLEY PARIS
In partnership with Sisley Paris, the Botanical Series brought vibrant, immersive compositions by Sydney Albertini to the Watermill, works shaped by memory, travel and sensation that explored the expressive and symbolic potential of plant life. They brought a lightness and joy to the fair's more contemplative atmosphere, and served as one of NOMAD's most characteristic gifts: the unexpected discovery that stays with you longest.
The Oman Collection - Gaetano Pesce, presented by Kalei NYC
The most moving presentation at NOMAD Hamptons. Kalei NYC presented The Oman Collection in collaboration with the Gaetano Pesce Estate, bringing together the Oman Chair and the monumental Oman Throne among Pesce's final explorations of material, nature and transformation. Conceived as a tribute to Oman's Frankincense tree, the works translate its forms and symbolic presence into sculptural objects rendered in transparent resins and vibrant colour. For anyone who has followed his singular contribution to collectible design culture, the encounter was deeply moving. A final act of generosity from one of the most original minds the design world has produced.
The Diwani Chair by Ahmed ElHusseiny
Robert Wilson's World
Running as a quiet thread throughout the entire edition was Robert Wilson himself, his universe, his collecting, his friendships and his legacy. Gio Ponti × Robert Wilson: Correspondence, presented in collaboration with the Lisa Ponti Estate and Caterina Licitra, explored the friendship between two of the 20th century's most original creative minds through drawings, ceramics and archival materials. Dominique Nabokov Photography, curated by Sophie Dries, brought together decades of images documenting friendship, interiors and artistic life around Wilson. Robert Wilson Works, curated by Noah Khoshbin, offered rare access to furniture, objects and archival materials from Wilson's own collection. For those fortunate enough to secure a place on the private guided visits to Wilson's Apartment at the Watermill, part living environment, part artistic manifesto, it was the weekend's most intimate and unforgettable experience.
Looking Ahead
NOMAD Hamptons marked something genuinely new, not just for the platform but for the broader collectible design landscape in America. The US market has long been underserved by the kind of intimate, architecture-led fair format that NOMAD does better than anyone else. If this first edition at the Watermill Center is the measure, the conversation it has opened between European and American collecting culture, between the Gulf and the East End, between historical craft and contemporary practice, is one the design world will be following closely.
NOMAD features in our roundup of 7 Design Events Shaping 2026.
Read our interview with NOMAD founder Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte here.
Images courtesy of NOMAD 2026
