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At NOMAD St. Moritz, a Cohesive Vision of Lived Aesthetics

Set in the intimate Villa Beaulieu, the ultra-exclusive, ultra-chic fair unfolded as a layered dialogue between objects, art and architecture.

Pure sunshine greeted the return of NOMAD to St. Moritz, Switzerland, and visitors were all the happier for it. The weather brightened the spirits of buyers, curators, gallerists and art enthusiasts who traveled from around the world for the winter edition of the peripatetic and extremely exclusive fair, which also stages editions in Abu Dhabi, Capri and the Hamptons. Among attendees were collector Simon De Pury, interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch, India Mahdavi, Lord Norman Foster and Maja Hoffmann of the LUMA Foundation. With more than 5,000 visitors across the weekend (up 15 percent from last year), this year’s edition was the most popular yet.

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Villa Beaulieu (a former wellness clinic) is a surprisingly intimate and cloistered setting for such a world-famous event. Occupying four levels and featuring 26 galleries, the fair offers panoramic views of the Alps across Lake St. Moritz from its windows, where one can enjoy watching amusement rides, horse trekking, ice bathing, mini golf, and cricket matches that take place on its frozen surface at this time of year. Or one could simply make do with a Negroni outside on the villa’s sun terrace, your choice.

This year’s edition is the first without co-founder Giorgio Pace’s involvement. Pace’s co-founder, Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, described how, after eight years of building NOMAD together, their parting “felt like a natural moment of evolution. There was no rupture. Rather, it was a transition reflecting the platform’s growth and maturity… The energy of the recent editions, the engagement, and the global resonance suggest that this evolution has brought renewed clarity and direction.”

The direction this year was braided within the fair’s theme of dialogue—the objects, settings and environments that talk to each other and provide significance in constancy rather than incongruity. Many of NOMAD’s previous editions have been about standing out, but this edition felt more about continuity and togetherness. “This year is less about a single protagonist and more about a collective maturity. What moves me most is the coherence across the presentations. Several galleries took risks, constructing immersive environments rather than isolated displays,” Bellavance-Lecompte said. “It is not about individual pieces on pedestals, but about creating an atmosphere. That total vision, where objects construct a world rather than simply occupy space, is very much what NOMAD stands for.”

Gallerist Leopold Thun (who grew up in the area and now runs........

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