May 2026 • Volume 004

Damn. I know I said I didn’t want to be at Milan Design Week, but missing Laila Gohar’s vegetable carousel actually hurts a little bit.

There’s an envious kind of ache that comes from not seeing something you know would have fed you, creatively. Not just because it’s visually compelling, but because it carries that feeling of someone made this because they couldn’t not make it. It’s playful and precise and slightly absurd, and I love when design and art allow themselves to be that free.

At the same time, I’ve been reading about something else that I hadn’t considered before, and I’m taking the idea with me to Europe next week: the way a city’s infrastructure, pace, and crowd dynamics can become part of the experience of seeing work. The locals in Milan expressed frustration with the organization of things. Long lines. A little chaotic getting around. That familiar festival-energy overwhelm where you’re both overstimulated and determined.

But weirdly, that mess made me think about the kinds of people who gather there. My people.

Designers, dreamers, idea makers, creators, artists, craftspeople. People who notice details. People who care about materials and edges and light and the way something is installed in a room. People who are willing to stand in a line for the chance to see one object in person, just to confirm a hunch they had from a photo.

And yes, I know the influencers are out there. That’s part of the ecosystem now. But for the sake of art and design, I’m confident I can move around them, find the quieter corners, and enjoy the presentations the way they’re meant to be experienced: slowly, with attention, with a little reverence.

I’m heading into this residency thinking a lot about that. How to travel as a viewer, not just as a person moving through places. How to stay sensitive without getting overwhelmed. How to let the work I see become a seed rather than a checklist.

Shows Around The World.. and online

Hilma af Klint, Grand Palais, Paris (May 6 - August 30) In the fall of 1907, after communicating with spirits in her attic, af Klint set to work on a series called “The Ten Largest,” which she completed over the course of 40 days. These paintings, among her most important, are now on view in Paris alongside her “Temple Paintings.”.

Hernan Bas: The Visitors, Ca’Pesaro, Venice, Italy (May 7 - August 30): This exhibition brings together 30 new paintings, many of them centered on the theme of mass tourism—a wink, given the gallery is in Venice.  

The European Fine Art Fair, Park Avenue Armory, New York (May 15 - 19): TEFAF New York is centered around modern and contemporary art.

Matisse’s Femme au Chapeau: A Modern Scandal, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (May 16 - September 7): Under the terms of a bequest, the portrait cannot travel, which makes SFMOMA the only place it can ever be seen, and also the only possible venue for this exhibition, which re-assembles works from the original Gallery VII of the 1905 Salon and places them alongside responses to Matisse’s painting by everyone from Joan Brown to David Hockney.

Silent Springs, Windswept Seas: Rachel Carson’s Environmental Vision, Beinecke Library at Yale University (May 18 - October 4): The exhibition includes unpublished writings and notes from Beinecke’s exhaustive Rachel Carson Papers, and presents them in dialogue with artifacts and the writings of Carson’s predecessors, peers, and successors.

In the Italian Manner: Spain and the Mediterranean Gothic 1320 - 1420, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (May 26 - September 20): Works by Italian masters Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Gherardo Starnina sit alongside those of Spanish painters Ferrer Bassa and the Serra brothers.

Jasper Johns: Night Drivers, Guggenheim, Bilbao (May 20 - October 12): The show includes the early canvases that broke decisively with Abstract Expressionism, the melancholy paintings of the 1960s, the abstract constructions of the 1970s and 80s, and Johns’s “Catenary” series of the early 2000s.

Bonus: I am highly interested in getting together at galleries and museums in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and the surrounding areas. Please send a note if you are too so we can connect on schedules.  

Let's Talk Art

The best conversations about art happen over coffee, in living rooms, in those quiet moments when someone asks the question they've been holding back.

That's the community I'm building with KRSTN Editions, a place where these conversations happen naturally, without pretense or gatekeeping. Whether you want to understand why a particular work resonates, discuss how to integrate a piece into your home, or explore what you're drawn to and why, I'm here for it.

If anything I've shared intrigues you, studio work, upcoming shows, curatorial direction, reach out. This work is never just about the art. It's about what art makes possible: the conversations, the connections, the moments of recognition when something shifts how you think about your space, your life, your legacy.

Consider this an open invitation. Whether you're already collecting or just beginning, whether you need guidance or simply want to share what excites you, I want to hear from you.

Community gets built one genuine conversation at a time.