The Lesbian Herstory Archives has been archiving lesbian culture since 1974 out of a brownstone in Park Slope, and their exhibition Black Lesbians in the Archive is on at Company Gallery, in Nolita, through Friday. I went yesterday and learned about Mabel Hampton, an activist and dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and Imani Rashid, a founding member of Salsa Soul Sisters, the oldest Black lesbian organization in the United States. The show closes Friday, but you can make an appointment to visit the Archives in Brooklyn anytime.

Exhibition →

There is a new documentary about Mary Oliver, one of the most read poets in America, directed by Sasha Waters. Oliver was from the rural Midwest, moved to New York by the late 1950s, then to Provincetown, Massachusetts in the 1960s with her partner, the photographer Molly Malone Cook. I have not seen it yet, but it is playing at IFC Center in the West Village through August 6.

Showtimes →

Wallpaper published a piece on a new generation of American designers who came to the United States from places like India, Vietnam, Korea, China, and Poland. Design studios Kawabi and Vy Voi both live in NYC, and you can see their work in galleries and showrooms around the city. Kawabi’s new lighting collection is at the Assembly Line Annex showroom in SoHo. I walked through it last month. Vy Voi’s Kite-In Flight floor lamp, inspired by the whistling kites of Vietnam, is one we showed at Lyle Gallery last year. You can visit her studio in NoMad.

Studio →

I learned this week that Syracuse, New York has been a haven for writers. Toni Morrison wrote most of The Bluest Eye there and Lillian Ross grew up there. Anna Kodé, my favorite journalist, wrote about why for the Times, and describes a "thriving indie literary community" there today. I am intrigued.

Syracuse →

The American LGBTQ+ Museum, which is opening on the Upper West Side, is running an intergenerational pen pal program, Old Lesbians x Young Lesbians. The email serendipitously hit my inbox right after my yearly trip to Cherry Grove, America’s first gay and Lesbian Town, and the only place I have found where you can easily interact and learn from our elders. I applied immediately. You fill out a form, and they match you on interests and location. You can also choose between Zoom, email, and the superior option: letter. Applications are open until September 13.

Sign up →

Creative New York is published by Lyle Gallery.

Latest essay: Dim Sum Palace and an afternoon seeing Greater New York
Latest film: A Week in May: One Week Inside New York’s Design Scene

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I am having lunch at a Cantonese restaurant in Queens. It’s called Dim Sum Palace, a block or two past the Court Square subway station, in a building that used to be an Italian-American restaurant and bar, Brooks 1890. It really is like a dim sum parlor moved right into an American pub. There is something very New York about ordering a Tsingtao and Sichuan cucumbers next to vintage Budweiser wall signs.

Just a few blocks away is MoMA PS1. It started in 1976 in an old public school building and became an affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art in 2000. It really is like a museum moved right into a school. They kept the graffiti on the stairwells, the long hallways, the classroom-sized rooms.

The last time I visited I was still a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, interning for a writer at the New York Times, handing out flyers at a PS1 Warm-Up party. Social marketing in the 2010s. Today I was first in line when it opened at noon, and I had the place to myself, which was lovely until the third time a guard told me I was standing too close to the artwork. I was the only one for them to look at.

Every five years, or a quinquennial in art speak, MoMA PS1 puts on Greater New York, a show of artists living and working here right now. This is the sixth edition, 53 artists and collectives who call New York City home. Most are on the younger side, and many came from somewhere else.

fields harrington is from Sacramento. He created a series of photographs of electric delivery bikes parked on the street. The number of delivery workers here has nearly doubled since 2019, and the apps pay them to go as fast as they can. It is one of the most dangerous jobs in the city. harrington photographs the bikes but never the riders, to protect them, since many are undocumented. Up close, you can see what each rider has done to make it theirs. Metallic tape wrapped around the frame, a flag from home, a Virgin Mary sticker on the battery pack, the outline of Africa. I see these bikes every day and I have never once stopped to look at them this way.

Kenneth Tam is from Queens, born there in 1982. His piece is called I’m Staying Hopeful and Strong (For Bilal and Salah), and it came out of the time he has spent with taxi drivers ruined by the medallion crisis. The medallion was sold to immigrant families as a guaranteed route to the middle class, and then came deceptive dealing, predatory lending, deregulation, and debts near a million dollars. His video is of two brothers, Bilal and Salah, Lebanese cab drivers in their sixties, moving through a slow kind of dance in an empty gym, saying words they wrote themselves about the work they do. It is projected above a sculpture on the floor made of the wooden beaded seat covers any New Yorker would recognize, laid out like a rug and lit with blinking LEDs like the skyline

Dean Majd is also from Queens, born there in 1990 to Palestinian immigrant parents. His series Birthmark is portraits of the Palestinian diasporic community in New York, many of his own generation, creatives and artists, photographed in their homes. The most recognizable is Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student, home from an ICE facility, holding his newborn next to his wife. I had seen it on the cover of Dazed. They hang with another body of work, Separation, taken in 2018 on his first trip to Palestine, traveling with his mother and meeting relatives for the first time.

The Cevallos Brothers, Carlos and Miguel, are in their eighties, the oldest artists in the show. They grew up in Bogotá, where they ran a sign shop in the sixties. Carlos came to New York first, painting signs in a Times Square studio, and then out in Queens they found the Colombian and Ecuadorian business owners along Roosevelt Avenue, under the 7 train in Jackson Heights. They have hand-painted the posters for the bodegas and taco trucks and restaurants ever since, Miguel doing the lettering, Carlos doing the color. They take commissions on their Instagram now.

Red Canary Song is a Flushing collective of migrant massage workers, sex workers, and allies across the Asian diaspora. It formed in 2017, after Yang Song, a Chinese massage worker, fell to her death during a police raid on the parlor where she worked. Their piece is called Touch the Heart, which is what dim sum means in Cantonese. They built a dim sum restaurant inside the museum, pink curtains, round banquet tables set with bowls and chopsticks, each table a different part of their work. On the walls are portraits of workers who have died, painted by a Korean massage worker named Ellen. The dim sum table is where the organization actually gathers, where they serve comfort food and hand out resources.

Eating lunch with me this afternoon at Dim Sum Palace is a young mother and her son, about three. I think they are the waiter’s family, by the way they talk to each other in a language I don’t understand. She keeps picking things off her plate and putting them on his. At the next table, a Spanish couple in their seventies, their adult son ordering the Peking duck, talking to them in Spanish and then turning to order in English. I have watched my wife do this a hundred times for her Polish family. A girl who looks Gen Z, striped hair like Alysa Liu, splitting fried rice with a boy in a tie-dye shirt. An elegant Asian woman about my mother’s age at a table for one, three steamer baskets in front of her, taking her time. A middle-aged Indian man in a sharp suit eats fast, like he is late for a meeting. An older Asian man in glasses leans over the bar to show the bartender something in the newspaper, and the two of them laugh. He leaves and says see you tomorrow. Must be a regular. Five businessmen with strong New York accents order another round of beers from the bartender, who answers in a heavy Cantonese accent. An American country song is playing. I order another round of pork dumplings to finish off my Tsingtao.

The TV over the bar is on, the local news. There is an update from the NYPD on the attack outside 26 Federal Plaza, the government building in Lower Manhattan where ICE has offices and immigrants get arrested at their check-ins. It's on mute.

A delivery driver comes in, shows the bartender an order on his phone, takes the bag, and rides off on his e-bike.

Greater New York closes August 17th.

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In “A Week in May”, I follow New York’s design community as it gathers for its biggest week of the year. Set against New York City Design Week, designers, gallerists, and curators show up across the city for exhibitions, fairs, and parties, from Tribeca to Red Hook. It’s an inside look into the people and places of New York City’s independent design scene.

Thank you to everyone who trusted me with their stories. It doesn't exist without you:

Angharad Coates — Female Design Council
Jenny Nguyen — Hello Human
Keti Chichinadze — Jamieri
Raksha Sanikam — House of Santal
Sandy Park & John Kim — Parkim
Tara Chen — RISD BFA Furniture Design 2026
Utharaa L Zacharias & Palaash Chaudhary — soft-geometry

With appearances by:
Lola Maria Tulle — AALVO Gallery
Alexa Bendek — Alexa Bendek Photography
Isabel Sullivan — Isabel Sullivan Gallery
Jialun Xiong — Studio Jialun Xiong
Natalie Shook — Piscina
Olly Mason — Wallpaper* Magazine
Ann Edgerton & Megan Carney — MUHLY
Canan Soylu — Atelier Beroj
Noel Hernandez & Viktoria Barbo — Ollin
Candace Moeller — Cristin Tierney Gallery
Jøna Maaryn — Jøna Maaryn

- L

This is episode one of a new series sharing stories from within New York's creative ecosystem. What community should we spotlight next?

Leave a comment

Six years ago, my wife and I bought a small, dilapidated farmhouse there. It was early 2020, and we were two weeks ahead of the historic pandemic bidding wars on every house within driving distance of the city.

I came across this town in the western Catskills, the way you found everything in early COVID, down in the algorithm abyss, via a post from The Livingston Manor Fly Fishing Club.

I grew up trout fishing with my family in Pennsylvania. My great-grandfather built a fishing cabin deep in the woods that still has no running water to this day. The Livingston Manor Fly Fishing Club was not anything like that cabin. They took fly fishing and made it aesthetic. The creative director in me was sold on the town in that moment.

Fly fishing has a long history here. The Willowemoc Creek, which has world-class trout fishing, runs right through downtown. More than a century ago, before the rail line disappeared, New Yorkers would rise before dawn, take the ferry across the Hudson, and ride the train all the way up here to fish by midday.

Trout is the soul of this place. I would go so far as to say that it is the town mascot. Every June, Main Street shuts down for the annual Trout Parade. Trout floats, trout costumes, it feels like a joyous ceremony to honor the fish.

This past May was filled with more work stress than usual, along with travel, projects, and the passing of a childhood friend. The Tyrpien Family was tired and burnt out. We tried the usual remedies of a millennial lesbian couple living in NYC. Binge watching Hacks. Taking our fifteen-year-old Yorkie, Stefan, to brunch. And damnit, not even a morning walk in Central Park was hitting as it should. We needed to up the dose. Perhaps it was time to give fishing a shot.

At the edge of Main Street, there is a shop called Dette Flies. It is the oldest family-run fly shop in America, started in 1928, and is still run by the family today.

If you have never been inside a fly shop, and we had not, Magdalena said it best when she whispered to me, “So is this just a craft store, but boy?”

Little feathers, big feathers, colorful feathers. An adorable little workbench with precious little tools for tying flies, used to catch the trout.

Dette’s has a bookshelf, a few rows of mostly the books you would expect at a family-run fishing supply store. But I found myself a treasure. A book about Carrie G. Stevens.

Carrie Gertrude Stevens was a milliner in Upper Dam, Maine, a town in the woods up in the Rangeley Lakes. For most of her life, that was her craft, making hats.

Then, in 1924, at the age of 42, she tied her first fly. She was self-taught, and she tied it in her bare hands, the way you would thread a needle. She cast it into the water and caught a six-pound, thirteen-ounce brook trout. It took second prize in Field and Stream, and her fly-tying business was born.

She not only tied the existing patterns but also designed her own. Her most famous is the Gray Ghost, which anglers still tie a hundred years later. Her trademark was the fly's head, finished with a contrasting band of thread. A black head with a red band, or a red head with a black band. It is how her originals are authenticated today.

She never left the state of Maine, but her flies went around the world. Her clients even included President Herbert Hoover. One of the employees at Dette’s told me he has seen her originals go for thousands of dollars. She was so monumental in her craft that, after she died, the governor of Maine named a day after her. There is something about a woman excelling at a craft within a field run by men, in the woods of Maine, that makes me an immediate admirer of her and her work.

We left Dette’s with the absolute essentials of two women embarking on a new hobby: two t-shirts, a book, and a hat. I found us a spot on Waneta Lake, eight minutes outside downtown. I was told it was good fishing, and we could use your good-old bobber, hook, and worm rig, since Dette’s fly-fishing lessons were all booked for the weekend.

We set up two folding chairs on the bank of the lake. Magdalena kept referring to her bobber as a Pokémon Ball, obviously the technical name. Stefan is asleep on my lap. Magdalena adjusts her new fishing hat and whips her Pokémon Ball and dangling worm upstream.

“Ooohhh, good cast, babe,” I tell her, as I set up eBay alerts for “Carrie G. Stevens Original Fly.” Somewhere out there is a fly she tied a hundred years ago. I would like to have one.

Photography by Kristina Shakht

There is a steel building on the corner of 23rd and 10th. It’s in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district. If I showed you a photo, you would recognize it if you’ve spent any time in that area of Manhattan. The High Line overlooks the second floor, and the second floor overlooks an outdoor sculpture garden.

My friend Isabel recently took over that second floor for her art gallery. If I showed you a photo, you would recognize her if you’ve spent any time following our projects this year. We have known each other for over a decade, and when people ask how we met, I usually tell them we met by being gay in the city, which is a completely acceptable answer for the wlw scene of NYC.

This year, Design Week overlapped with Art Week. What would it look like if we created a space for our community, queer, lesbian, nonbinary, trans, to find each other under the umbrella of the arts? A place to connect the people who work within art and culture to the people who love them.

Ren poured the wine. A sommelier on a mission to get more queer people into wine. Love. Sruti was there, an attorney at the ACLU, fighting for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ people across the country.

Sasha, who studied studio art, now builds economic and civic power for families facing rural poverty across East and West Africa. Feruza, a new friend. A professor of Soviet history, and also an actor. Yesim, a real estate broker who uses art and culture to celebrate the city and sell homes.

Lola was there, in from São Paulo. She just opened a new space for her gallery, AALVO. I’ve been dying to get down there to see it. Jona, a furniture designer, in town from Marfa. Tory and Michelle, newly engaged. Michelle just launched a dating app that runs on astrology. Very lesbian of her.

Olivia, who met Magdalena through the biotech world, is also a painter. Carly, a previous interior designer, now launching a fashion marketplace for people recovering from surgery or living with disability. Elena, a private wealth manager for LGBTQ+ clients, knew half the room already. That night, I met Colleen, a doctor and physical therapist who treats performers. We bonded over a love of watching people on a stage.

Interior designers like Emillie, meeting gallery directors like Candace, meeting founders like Trina, meeting photographers like Alexa.

Allison, who just got back from a month-long artist residency in Arizona, told me it was the first party all week where she’d met people who weren’t in design.

If you visited Lyle Gallery’s first space in Chinatown, I’m sure I showed you Secret Room™, the back room hidden by a built-in bookshelf. We had grand plans of throwing big lesbian poker nights in there. I imagined it in the aesthetic of In the Mood for Love, with monogrammed visors and a swanky jazz playlist. We never got to live out that dream before we left Rutgers Street and went nomadic. But, and hear me out, what about Lyle, in the Garden, with a Royal Flush?

Photography by Kristina Shakht

My wife, Magdalena, has had a little bee in her little bonnet about adopting a New York City pigeon.

This special interest began about 2 years ago, right when millennials in this city started taking up urban birding.

We’ll be walking down the street, and she’ll point to a pigeon and say, Are you free? Hoping that the Pigeon Distribution System found her.

Magdalena has had two heroic pigeon-saving moments since accepting these birds into her life. One of those moments took place last Friday.

We were walking north, up West End Avenue, on our way to Central Park, when the pigeon distribution system found us.

There it was, a pigeon, in distress. He kept falling over himself, smashing his face against the concrete sidewalk every 2 or 3 steps it took.

She called the Wild Bird Fund, the local bird rescue not too far from where we were, and they told her to bring him in. Challenge accepted. So there I was, on 72nd Street, watching my wife try to catch her pigeon.

We spent twenty-five minutes feeding him crumbs from a pastry we bought from the bodega next door to distract him, while she attempted to throw her cashmere sweater over his body and scoop him up.

At one point, he threw himself into traffic, having decided that head-on traffic was preferable to whatever this human wanted.

But only in New York can you have pigeon serendipity.

Are you with the pigeon people? Magdalena asked, out of breath, to two women who were crouched down, feeding another set of pigeons around the corner.

They were. Someone had called them the day before about a pigeon with a neurological problem. We have him! she told them.

The next morning, I got an email: we were off the waitlist for the 9 am Jane’s Walk tour. The tour was called Watching New York Pigeons, and, being a wife who prides herself on paying attention to her wife’s special interests, I had booked it for us weeks ago.

Jane’s Walk is an annual festival of free, volunteer-led walking tours. It is named after Jane Jacobs, the urbanist who wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The festival happens in cities all over the world, but the New York chapter is the largest. Every year, MAS, the Municipal Art Society of New York, organizes more than 200 walks across the city. They are tours for New Yorkers, by New Yorkers. You walk through a neighborhood with someone who knows it well, and they tell you what they know.

On Saturday at 9am, we met a group of other pigeon enthusiasts at the first stop on the tour, the William T. Sherman statue at 5th Ave and 59th Street. Our guide, Andrew Garn, a pigeon folklorist, was going to lead us on a tour of “iconic pigeon hangouts,” according to the listing description.

Iconic was exactly my first impression of Andrew: he’s maybe in his 60s, pigeon hat, pigeon scarf, a pigeon medallion around his neck like the Flavor Flav of pigeons, a pin on his backpack, ”I ❤️ MUSIC”. I ❤️ YOU, Andrew.

Andrew recognized the two women standing next to me and asked whether they had been on this tour before. They had, last year. As he scanned the crowd, I sensed his disappointment at the group’s lack of pigeon ephemera (fair). But the woman next to me saved the group from embarrassment by proudly sharing that she has a pigeon tattoo on her neck.

Andrew said that he loves watching pigeons because they are just like New York City. They are survivors. That they are immigrants too. He asked the group if everyone had seen the pigeon sculpture on the High Line. Everyone nodded, because of course we all had. That’s mainstream pigeon culture.*

The tour walked west along the southern edge of Central Park, from 59th and 5th to Columbus Circle. Running clubs were out. A white pickup truck was parked, with a man in the back, blaring music from his DJ set. On the lawn, a group of 10 people or so, holding 7-foot-long swords, must be a swording class? And us. Just your average slice of the NYC Saturday morning ecosystem.

The woman to my left had her iPhone notes app open the entire tour, a file called Jane’s Walk Pigeon Tour. She typed furiously as Andrew told us that the reason we see so many pigeons with foot problems is that their little toes and little feet pick up human hair, and it gets twisted around them. Magdalena asked him about racing pigeons, which she had apparently tried to buy once. This was news to me.

Halfway through the tour, Andrew pulled out his book, The New York Pigeon. He photographed them while working at the Wild Bird Fund. They are studio portraits of pigeons, glamour shots really, or according to his website “vogue, but for pigeons”. He nailed it.

Magdalena, hearing him mention Wild Bird Fund, was so excited as if she was in on the secret, that she had JUST called them yesterday.

On the subway home, I asked Mags if she enjoyed the tour.

I loved it, she said. Thank you.

That night, getting ready for bed, Mags found a few of my stray black curly hairs on the white bathroom sink. She demanded that I come look.

“Do you know what these do?! She said. They hurt pigeons.”

New York Pigeon

Related Links:

Soul & Soil: Ukrainian Poetic Cinema

Metrograph’s latest series (Nov 8–16) spotlights Ukraine’s poetic-cinema movement, where 1960s filmmakers turned from Soviet propaganda toward myth, folklore, and dreamlike storytelling.

→ Metrograph, NYC

Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s–Now

At M+ Hong Kong, Dream Rooms traces seventy years of women artists who built entire worlds out of light, sound, and space (think Judy Chicago and Lygia Clark). On view through January 18, 2026.

→ Exhibition

Ann Carrington’s Webs

Ann Carrington makes steel spiderwebs threaded with brass insects and old coins, and one day I will own one.

→ @anncarringtonart

Marfa: Inside America’s Desert Art Town

Each October, the desert town of Marfa, Texas becomes a global art hub for Chinati Weekend. Lyle Gallery headed west to explore how politics, geography, and community continue to shape creativity across West Texas. Marfa is the first chapter in a new Lyle Gallery series exploring the creative pulse of cities and communities around the world.

→ Watch

Which Way Is Tomorrow?

A TikTok by @kierajerri exploring how cultures conceptualize time differently. In some languages, the future is behind us and the past ahead.

→ Watch

@kierajerrivery cool how time and space are viewed differently all over the world. It’s a reminder of how important it is to diversify your references, there’s more than just the western world . Theres great thinking all over the world

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Witchcraft, Magic & Lesbians

This post from the Lesbian Herstory Archives about how witchcraft became a symbol of queer power and self-definition in the 1970s.

→ Instagram

Liberation on Broadway

Liberation follows a group of activists navigating love, protest, and survival in the 1970s. It found me on TikTok with the line, “the only female writer–director pair on Broadway”. I saw it and I loved it. They require you power off your phone and lock it in a pouch before the show…for reasons you’ll understand if you see it before it closes.

→ liberationbway.com

Women by Women: The Shortlist

From a global open call, 150 photographers and filmmakers capture womanhood through the female gaze. You can even filter by country. I found it beautiful and inspiring.

→ Photo Vogue

Keeping Southern Iraq’s Historic Textile Traditions Alive

WePresent profiles artist Hussein Shikha, who’s reviving southern Iraq’s traditional weaving techniques. “Carpet making is a form of knotting, which is also a form of coding,” he says. “When I look at a carpet, I see pixels in the knots, like its DNA.” His work blends tapestry, digital animation, and major moments in Iraqi history.

→ WePresent

Gay Rodeo

NBC News covers the World Gay Rodeo Finals in Reno, Nevada, where queer cowboys and cowgirls reclaim one of America’s most conservative sports. The event combines competition and community, tracing a history of LGBTQ+ rodeo culture dating back to the 1970s.

→ NBC News

And last, but not least, this mic drop quote from Artnotnet.

→ Artnotnet

*slams laptop shut until monday*

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Women Are Outspending Men on Art

UBS data shows women spent 46% more on art and antiques than men in 2024. In the U.S., over half of the works in women’s collections are by female artists. The report also shows that younger collectors are skipping galleries and auctions, buying straight from artists on Instagram or in studios instead. It will be interesting to see how galleries respond to this new generation… Article →

“What do we do with 632 wool skirts?”

Wool Skirts features 632 wool skirts collected over three generations, from the 1940s to the 1990s. The show looks at how fashion, labor, and gender have evolved over time, transforming a massive archive into a space for rethinking how clothes hold history and care. It includes reworked designs by 21 artists and designers and is on view through November 30. Exhibition →

The Slow Death of the New York City Public Bench

Anna Kodé traces how NYC benches changed from public gathering spots into tools for control. Many have been redesigned to stop people from lying down or resting too long, showing how small design choices shape public life. Article →

How to Work Better

This week NYC designer Teruko Kushi posted this 1991 artwork by Peter Fischli and David Weiss: “How to Work Better” And it just felt like the advice that I needed, and so perhaps you need it too:

UNESCO’s Virtual Museum for Stolen Art

UNESCO launched the Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects, an online archive showing 3D reconstructions of artworks that were stolen or trafficked. It helps people trace lost cultural treasures and learn more about the global art trade.

Ruth Asawa at MoMA

MoMA’s new retrospective of Ruth Asawa features over 300 works spanning six decades, from her wire sculptures to paintings and public projects. Co-organized with SFMOMA, it’s the largest solo show by a woman artist in the museum’s history. Exhibition →

São Paulo’s Creative Boom

Monocle highlights São Paulo’s growing design scene, driven by young artists, galleries, and collectives. The feature includes voices like Lola Maria Tulle of Aalvo Gallery (🫶!!), part of a new wave of designers shaping the city’s creative identity. Read →

Modern Dadaist Movement?

TikTok users argue Gen Z and Gen Alpha are reviving a modern Dada movement built on irony and anti-aesthetic experimentation. Watch →

@hate_killsyoung gen z and gen alpha are creating a modern dadaist movement as their cultural output and i think it’s really interesting

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Future Nature at GLO Modern

I stopped by GLO Modern last week, an experimental gallery and modern-day souvenir shop that shares its space with the neon light studio GLO Studio. The mix of glowing fabrication and thoughtful exhibition gives the place a very special energy. Founded by Lora Appleton and Lena Imamura, their inaugural exhibition Future Nature was just extended through December 10 by appointment. Info →

Ten Unspoken Rules of Art World Etiquette

Elephant Magazine asked PR experts how to move through the art world with a little more grace. Adam Abdalla from Cultural Counsel says “Treat everyone as a VIP.” The young curator today could be the museum director tomorrow. ;) Read →

*slams laptop shut until monday*

Artist Anna Zimmermann, founder of The Feminist Welding Club, staged a live performance during Vienna Design Week as part of Exercises in Welding. The club—open to women, trans, and gender-queer folks—flips the macho image of welding, showing how it is about confidence, precision, and patience.

Catherine Opie’s Dyke Deck

A deck of cards I didn’t know I needed: Catherine Opie’s 1995 Dyke Deck, a pack of playing cards printed with her photographs of queer community and intimacy. Artsy →

Jøna Maaryn Debuts Magnificent Desolation in Marfa

During Chianti Weekend in Marfa, Texas, my dear friend Jøna Maaryn unveiled her new collection and it looked incredible. More on that very soon, but here’s a little sneak peek.

Apple × Design Miami

Apple is teaming up with Design Miami to spotlight four emerging designers who use accessible tech to advance their ideas. The exhibition debuts this month in Paris. Another strong example of the Brand as Patron trend. Dezeen →

Morioka Shoten: A Bookstore for One

In Tokyo, Morioka Shoten sells only one title at a time—multiple copies of a single book that changes weekly. “A single room with a single book.” Perfect.

City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago

At the MCA Chicago, this group show traces the city’s overlooked role in queer art and activism. On view July 5, 2025 – May 31, 2026. Exhibition →

Levi’s × 13 Mexican Designers

For Hispanic Heritage Month, Levi’s launched Denim Reimaginado, commissioning 13 Mexican designers to reinterpret its classic denim as wearable art. OBSESSED. Read →

Humans of New York at Grand Central

Dear New York transforms Grand Central into a giant love letter to the city—an immersive installation by Brandon Stanton featuring stories from New Yorkers and artwork by 600 public-school students. Story →

“How I’d Bring Back MySpace”

Is it time for a MySpace renaissance? Maybe it’s exactly the kind of social media we need in 2025. I love what Charlotte Mair imagines for this. Watch →

Catherine Leroy’s Fearless Photography

The New Yorker’s piece on French war photographer Catherine Leroy sent me down a rabbit hole. *swoons* brave women, am I right? Story →

For $72, You Can Have Your Name on the American LGBTQ+ Museum

The forthcoming American LGBTQ+ Museum in NYC is inviting founding donors now. For just $72, your name will be permanently displayed on the museum walls when it opens in 2027. I already claimed mine—a small price to pay to be part of queer history. Donate →

*slams laptop shut until monday*

My favorite new follow: African Style Archive, curated by London-based Tosin Adeosun (@motown_gal). She documents and celebrates African fashion history and its global influence. Bonus: their Spotify playlist has been on repeat all week.

One Hundred Years of Art Deco

From October 22, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris opens 1925–2025: One Hundred Years of Art Deco, the largest Art Deco collection in the world. It apparently kicks off on the legendary Orient Express (whatever that means, I’m in). Exhibition →

Stella McCartney’s Pollution-Eating Denim

At Paris Fashion Week, Stella debuted denim woven with PURE.TECH—a fabric that literally absorbs air pollutants. Clothes that clean the air while you wear them. Story →

GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between

At MoMu in Antwerp, GIRLS dives into the cultural weight of girlhood, with works by Sofia Coppola, Louise Bourgeois, and more. On view through February 1, 2026. Exhibition →

Why Platform Design Is Cultural Design

Loved this essay on how digital platforms don’t just shape behavior—they shape culture. Designers need cultural literacy, not just technical skills. I thought this was interesting:

“If platform design is cultural design, then designers need more than technical fluency. They need cultural literacy—the ability to anticipate social consequences, recognize embedded biases, and see users as co-authors rather than passive consumers. This requires designing with awareness of how features reshape labor, identity, and expression, and supporting systems flexible enough to accommodate diverse values rather than enforcing uniformity.”

Read →

Graphic Designers at Milan Fashion Week

A fun perspective: what graphic designers noticed at fashion week. Post →

Eavesdrop Open Call

Eavesdrop magazine is accepting poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art for their first anthology Our Queer Histories. Submit →

Lagos Street Markets Inspiring Design

Wallpaper explores how Lagos’ markets inspire a new generation of Nigerian creatives—including friends of the gallery, Sandia and Tolu of Salù Iwadi Studio. Read →

Rose B. Simpson’s Painted Cars

Rose B. Simpson welds and restores old cars like clay, then paints them like pottery. Two of her lowriders are now on view at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Profile →

Saint Heron Community Library

Solange launched a free digital library of rare Black and brown literature through Saint Heron. U.S.-based readers can borrow for 45 days, free.

Upstate Woman Submissions

Upstate Woman is calling for writing and art exploring rural women’s lives and perspectives. Submit →

Open House New York

This weekend, 300 hidden NYC spots open their doors. Tickets went live today—I’m eyeing the Herb Lubalin Study Center, the Billion Oyster Project, and Printemps. Plan →

Embroidery as Archive

Vogue India profiles women from Kutch to Tamil Nadu preserving identity through embroidery. “What looks like ornament is often archive, where a woman’s hand records migrations, marriages and myths.” Read →

Murano Glass Cubes for Bottega Veneta

Bottega’s Summer 2026 show featured translucent Murano glass stools by 6:AM, connecting Venetian craft with Milanese fashion spectacle. Designboom →

Chinatown Pretty

Photographer Andria Lo spent a decade documenting the super-fashionable elders of America’s Chinatowns. Chinatown Pretty, made with writer Valerie Luu, captures the colorful, mishmash-y street style of seniors across U.S. Chinatowns. Read →

*slams laptop shut until monday*

At Staten Island’s Alice Austen House, She Sells Seashells—curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley—explores the long romance between queer women and the sea. The show is inspired by the waterside home of Alice Austen and her partner, Gertrude Tate, and is on view through February 2026. Exhibition →

Erria Beta Launch

I’ve been so excited for this since co-founder Alyssa Gerasimoff and I became friends last year creating the exhibition Gathered together. Erria is a platform where you can buy directly from designers and makers worldwide. I couldn’t be more thrilled for something like this to exist.

Christie’s Antique Sale

Instead of Rockefeller Plaza, Christie’s upcoming antique auction is happening in a Queens warehouse. Many of the lots have no reserve, so you could walk out with 18th-century French chairs for under $100. Viewing runs through October 7. Details →

15 Women-Led Art Shows in New York

Vogue rounded up 15 women-led shows this fall, and it’s stacked. I’m especially drawn to Sissi Farassat at Houk Gallery and Danielle Kosann at The Lobster Club (“You Still Haven’t Met All of the People Who Are Going to Love You”—what a title). Vogue →

Fire on Brooklyn Waterfront Devastates Artists’ Warehouse

A five-alarm fire tore through a Red Hook warehouse this week, devastating studios for hundreds of artists and designers in our community. Many lost their life’s work. A GoFundMe is circulating to help.

Custom Nipple Moldings at Hannah Traore Gallery

Misha Japanwala’s show Sarsabzi turns the gallery wall into a growing installation of nipple casts contributed by visitors. Her practice centers on rejecting the shame so often imposed on femme and nonbinary bodies. On view through December 6. Exhibition →

Lesbian Jazz by Anouk Lamm Anouk

Last year I came across Vienna-based artist Anouk Lamm Anouk’s Lesbian Jazz series and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Artsy →

Land Art in the American West

My very outdoorsy, SLC-based little sister sent me this one (relevant, because this is not something that usually hits my NYC algorithm). A new wave of land art is rising in the West. I’m especially drawn to The Soil You See… (2023) by Wendy Red Star: a giant blood-red fingerprint, nearly eight feet tall, etched with the names of 50 Apsáalooke chiefs and tribal representatives coerced into signing treaties between 1825 and 1880—often with thumbprints or Xs.

The World’s First Audio Museum

Somehow I just discovered Audeum—the world’s first museum dedicated entirely to sound. Located in Seoul, its collection spans from Edison phonographs to Western Electric loudspeakers, reframing listening as an art experience. IG →

Mexico ’68 Graphics

This week I found myself on Olympic Design TikTok, and I need to have a moment for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. It produced one of the most iconic graphic campaigns in history: psychedelic op-art meets Mexican tradition. Story →

*slams laptop shut until monday*

Ally Pankiw’s new documentary revisits Sarah McLachlan’s all-female music festival and its cultural impact. It premiered at TIFF on September 13 and lands on Hulu this weekend. Cannot. Wait.

Full Dress by Freaks

Hudson-based studio Freaks debuts Full Dress, a lighting collection reframing historic skirted forms through a queer lens. Each lamp honors a vanished lesbian bar or cabaret like Maud’s, Mona’s, Le Monocle, Violetta, Lulu’s, Eldorado, and The Duchess. NEED.

NewFest Tickets Open

The 37th Annual NewFest brings 130+ queer films to NYC and streaming, October 9–21. Highlights (for me) include Dyke Night—eight sapphic shorts on lesbian longing—and QUEER AS PUNK, a documentary on Malaysia’s trans-led punk band, Shh…Diam!

The Case for Protopia

On The Femme Futurist Society podcast, Monika Bielskyte argues for Protopia: a future that’s slightly better every day. Unlike utopia or dystopia, Protopia is about incremental, realistic progress.

Gaza Biennale: From Gaza to the World

Born during the war, the Gaza Biennale unites artists resisting genocide with work that asserts art as survival.

Soft Worlds, Sharp Edges

At London Design Festival, Charlotte Taylor’s Soft Worlds, Sharp Edges replicates a bedroom, showcasing works by 37 female designers that blur softness and sharpness in design.

Lyle Gallery WLW Open Call

Shameless plug: this week we launched an open call for WLW designers and makers in collectible design, sculpture, and functional objects. We’re seeking lesbian, bi, femme-aligned nonbinary, and trans artists for 2025/26 projects. Apply here.

The Pearls Project

Archie Geotina “celebrates lost culture and the power of women dancing with mother ocean” in the project Pearls. From its 2021 release on Philippine Independence Day, the project has grown into a global celebration of women across seven countries.

Speaking of Surfing…A Casting Call for Surfers

Movement curator Eryn Danielle is seeking surfers worldwide for an upcoming project. I don’t know the details, but looks EXCITING.

The Rise of Knowledge Creators

We’re moving towards a new era of content creation rooted in knowledge rather than lifestyle. Interesting (and finally).

Brands as Patrons

Brands are commissioning artists like old-world patrons. Aesop recently tapped synesthetic painter Jack Coulter for a fragrance-inspired work, part of a larger wave of brand x artist collaborations I have seen lately.

*slams laptop shut until monday*

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Discovery

Hosting open calls for Exhibitions are not glamorous. They mean days of sifting through PDFs, clunky websites, and Instagram profiles. It’s time-consuming work. But when curating, we believe in the value of getting out of our own algorithm and network and so, it is worth it.

For Outside/In, our New York Design Week exhibition with Hello Human, we received more than 200 submissions from artists and designers across the world, with only 12 ultimately selected.

One of them was Salù Iwadi Studio. On our first call, designers Toluwalase Rufai in Lagos and Sandia Nassila in Dakar shared a short black-and-white film of the Zangbeto masquerade. In the film, towering figures cloaked in raffia spun across the ground, sometimes in steady rotations, other times wild and frenzied. They explained that the Zangbeto, translated as “guardians of the night,” are part of the Ogu people’s traditions in Benin and Togo. They are protectors, spiritual intermediaries, and community guardians.

Their proposed piece, the Zangbeto Side Table, translated this ritual into contemporary design. Its shape echoed the raffia costumes, with layered wooden fins spiraling upward like the bodies in motion. The tabletop rippled with hand-carved ridges, referencing the vibrations of the dance. Even at rest, the side table felt alive, with light casting shadows through its fins and carrying the energy of a centuries-old tradition into a new form. It was a perfect fit for the exhibition.

Resonance

From the beginning, we asked ourselves: how might Outside/In reach beyond our gallery walls? At 24 Rutgers Street in Chinatown, physical foot traffic is limited, so we decided to experiment with digital foot traffic.

We built a campaign called If you walked into the gallery right now, this is what we’d tell you. Each short video replicated the moment when a visitor asks, “Can you tell me about this piece?” The Zangbeto Side Table video reached nearly 100,000 views on TikTok. Many who saw it might never have stepped into the gallery otherwise, but some came to our space saying, “I saw this table on TikTok and had to see it in person.” A few even told us it was their first-ever gallery visit. That felt like a real win.

The story resonated offline too. Anna Kodè from The New York Times joined our opening breakfast (bagels > cocktails) and later published a feature on the show, including a photograph of Sandia standing in front of the Zangbeto Side Table. We ask every visitor how they found us, and during the run of Outside/In, nearly everyone mentioned TikTok or The New York Times.

Museum Acquisition

During Design Week in May, we got a DM from Dylan, an old friend of Lin’s from freshman year at FIT. He and his husband, Darrin, who happens to be the curator of design at the Denver Art Museum, were in town and wanted to stop by the show. Yes, please.

When we walked them through the exhibition, we paused at the Zangbeto Side Table. After watching the short film Sandia and Tolu had shared, Darrin immediately connected with the piece. He spoke about the museum’s commitment to expanding its collection with works from across Africa and the African diaspora. He handed over his business card and soon after, conversations with the museum began.

After a few weeks of back and forth with their team, and final board approval, the Zangbeto Side Table shipped from Lagos to Colorado and officially joined the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection.

Why This Story Matters

Bringing new voices into design requires more than relying on familiar circles. Open calls, while imperfect, can open doors for artists and designers who might otherwise remain outside the echo chamber. With care and intention, they can be career-changing for everyone involved.

This story also shows the power of storytelling: when you can clearly explain what a piece is, where it comes from, and why it matters, it resonates across contexts—whether with a curator, a journalist, or someone scrolling on TikTok.

And acquisitions matter. At a time when acquisitions are rarer, Denver’s decision is part of a steady commitment to collecting contemporary designers from young galleries—joining works like Monica Curiel’s La Mari Chair and Kim Mupangilaï’s Brazza Screen. It’s how institutions expand the canon in real time.

We haven’t yet been to the Denver Art Museum, but when we do, we’ll go straight to that side table. We can’t wait to take a selfie in front of it, send it to Sandia and Tolu, and thank them for the opportunity to share their work in this way.

And in New York, another lives in our bedroom, where it greets us each morning—an everyday reminder of their vision and of the centuries-old ritual that shaped it.

For those who wish to join that story, the Zangbeto Side Table is available through Lyle Gallery at info@thelyle.gallery, shipping directly from Lagos.

We showed work by three artists: Karina Sharif, who had a solo show with us earlier this year; Clarissa Guzman of Platform Studio; and Steffany Tran of Vy Voi, both part of our New York Design Week presentation, Outside/In.

• Karina Sharif’s Sometimes Mother and Totem, made of ceramic and hand painted paper petals. Her work honors the Black femme, woman, trans, gender expansive, and non binary diaspora.

• Platform Studio’s hand built candelabras, Sanctum and Ceremonia, rooted in Clarissa’s childhood memories of gazing up at grand church candelabras, honoring the architecture and symbolism of her forbears.

• Vy Voi’s Kite In-Flight, featured in the New York Times earlier this year, telling the story of whistling kites in Vietnam.

We chose a bold wall color, Farrow & Ball’s Titmouse Blue, which drew overheard comments like “witchy” and “a vibe.” I’ll take it.

What I Saw Walking the Floor

• Kombi, our neighbor to the right, spotlighting South African designers.

• Exclama, my neighbor to the left, a nomadic gallery from Colombia. Their tea light sconce by Juan Echeverria sold immediately.

• Jesse Groom and Yuxuan Huang joined forces for a collaborative booth showcasing their new sculptural light collections.

• Ollin’s Viktoria Barbo and Noel Hernandez, debuting their stone, steel, and leather inspired collection Umbral. By Sunday I spotted Viktoria in the corner firing off invoices left and right. You go, Ollin.

• Down the hall from us, our friends at Jamieri, telling the story of Georgian culture through objects made by local artisans.

• Emily Thurman’s presentation, chic as ever. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about her Stacks Smoking Table, the Sunday night pre-roll accessory of my dreams.

• Monica Curiel’s piece Sewing on Saturday Morning, a vessel inspired by summers on her grandmother’s porch sewing, mending, and washing clothes, shown at The Object Boutique booth.

• Kritika Manchandra’s As You Were, an ethereal resin table and chair draped in silk organza with a pressed shirt. I love her pressed textiles. We showed her piece Dinner Napkin in our Gathered exhibition.

• I always love an Of The Cloth and Kawabi’s collaboration. Irisa and Aaron of Kawabi created larger than life sculptural paper lighting that always had a crowd around them, probably because it was impossible not to feel a sense of calm standing in front of their work.

By Sunday, the last day, it was all of us exhibitors holding on for dear life. On opening morning I was told that my little stool for sitting was not allowed in booths; by the end of the week one exhibitor had brought in a camping chair and I was perched on a spare pedestal in the hallway. The fair began with everyone in their chic little shoes and outfits, then slowly surrendered to sneakers. You could find us all circling the floor asking how everyone was holding up, counting down the hours left of introverting. And then suddenly it was over. That same night you pack up, load out, and already it feels nostalgic in a way.

The best part of doing this fair, in my opinion, is the bonds it creates between exhibitors. When you’re standing for five days side by side, sharing snacks, talking shop, asking if they need anything on your brief trip to the outside world for Walgreens runs, you can’t help but connect.

Those who visit rarely see how much goes into fairs like this. Which is fair, because at the end of the day when you look around you’re like, how hard could putting on something like this really be? But it takes a village. So here’s to the Collectible team, to the designers whose work we were proud to show, and to everyone who came through the doors during a very calendar-packed week of events in New York. Until next year.

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The past year and a half gave us a real foundation to build from. We opened exhibitions I’m really proud of, worked with artists I deeply admire, and tested a handful of hypotheses about what a gallery could be. Now, with those learnings in hand, we’re heading into a new chapter. Lyle Gallery 2.0, if you will.

This year, Lyle won’t have a permanent space. Anyone who’s been with us from the start knows how much I love that little space. She’s special, for sure. But stepping outside those walls opens up more interesting, exciting, flexible, and sustainable ways of working. This shift feels more aligned with the times and with where I see Lyle Gallery going next.

We’re also experimenting with a new kind of foot traffic: the internet. We’re using digital distribution systems to tell stories and reach more people in smarter, more intentional ways. We’re leaning into how people discover, collect, and connect in 2025. I think there’s so much opportunity there, and we’re really excited to explore it this year.

We’re also doubling down on collaborations. The projects that made the biggest impact last year were the ones we didn’t do alone. It takes a village, and I’m excited to partner with more creatives, businesses, galleries, and artists in new and unexpected ways.

You’ll also see us pop up in different places around NYC and beyond as we continue rethinking how, where, and why a gallery exists in this moment.

As for Lyle’s first home at 24 Rutgers Street: the space is staying in the family. Our good friends (and some of our favorite humans) at Hello Human will be breathing new life into that special little corner at the edge of Chinatown. I couldn’t be more excited to see what they build there.

Thank you to everyone who helped shape Chapter 1 of Lyle Gallery.

I can’t wait to share what Lyle Gallery 2.0 has in store. We’re kicking off the season at Collectible Design Fair, September 4–7. We’re so excited to be part of it again and can’t wait to see all the new work out there. Come say hi!

More soon,
Lin Tyrpien

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A little trip down memory lane from our first year: