BURLINGTON, VERMONT
THE THINNING VEIL: Materiality, Magnetism, and the Unseen Geography of the Green Mountains
[PAST]
MARCH 3 - MAY 9, 2026
Nurture By Nature, the Burlington, Vermont–based interior design studio and gallery founded by Kate Swanson, announces its second exhibition, The Thinning Veil: Materiality, Magnetism, and the Unseen Geography of the Green Mountains, opening March 21, 2026.
As culture increasingly flattens experience into screens, The Thinning Veil offers a tactile counterpoint - an invitation to gather, to “touch grass,” and to experience design as a physical, shared ritual. Through a multi-phase group show of decorative objects and lighting, the exhibition brings artists, collectors, and community into direct encounter with material, weight, texture, and light. Design as presence.
As culture increasingly flattens experience into screens, The Thinning Veil offers a tactile counterpoint - an invitation to gather, to “touch grass,” and to experience design as a physical, shared ritual. Through a multi-phase group show of decorative objects and lighting, the exhibition brings artists, collectors, and community into direct encounter with material, weight, texture, and light. Design as presence.
[EXHIBITON VIEW]
Participating Northeast designers and artists include Thomas Yang, Elizabeth Lenny, Ethan Streicher, Anne Greene, Aydan Hüseynli, KADNS, and Ford Bostwick. Many works have been created specifically for the exhibition, with new releases debuting at the opening.
From granite-embedded candle sconces and waxed brass appliqué lighting to hand-embroidered heirloom seating and cast aluminum wall hooks modeled after pine branches, each piece in The Thinning Veil functions not merely as furniture or lighting, but as a coordinate, a physical translation of spooky Vermont geographies rooted in spiritual connection to the metaphysical world. The Thinning Veil unfolds in Burlington, Vermont, a place where landscape and legend are inseparable. Defined by granite quarries, dense forests, glacial lakes, and small towns shaped by craft, Vermont has long held a quiet, spiritual mythology, its geography marked by stories of vortexes, disappearances, healing springs, and “thin places” where the boundary between the physical and unseen feels permeable. It is a region often described as witchy in temperament - where diagonal Witch Windows punctuate historic farmhouses with their slightly off-axis geometry, and where the Bennington Triangle continues to whisper stories of vanishing hikers and unexplained phenomena in the shadow of Glastenbury Mountain. Here, folklore is not spectacle, it's spiritual; the woods feel sentient, the granite feels charged, and the land itself seems to hold sacred memory.
[CHERRY, RIVER STONE]
[EXHIBITION VIEW]
On opening night, a brief reading of Vermont ghost stories will unfold within the dimly lit gallery, adding a narrative layer to the work and reinforcing the exhibition’s exploration of spiritual geography, folklore, and shared myth. Nurture By Nature has always approached design as an ecosystem rather than a transaction. The exhibition extends the studio’s core belief that the spaces we inhabit are shaped not only byform and function, but by the relationships between maker, material, and place. In this way, The Thinning Veil becomes both a curatorial statement and a continuation of the studio’s larger design philosophy.
[EXHIBITON VIEW]
CONTEXT & CONCEPT
The multi-phase group exhibition explores Vermont as a landscape of charged conductive energy. Rooted in the idea of “thin places, ” the show investigates the tension between material and metaphysical through collectible design. Rather than approaching vortexes and folklore as spectacle, Nurture By Nature interprets them as expressions of raw, high-frequency relationships between maker, material, and land. This perspective reflects the studio’s broader ethos: that the built environment is not neutral, but alive with the imprint of process, intention, and place. In both its residential work and gallery programming, Nurture By Nature approaches design as a relational practice, one that honors the dialogue between artist and collector, object and environment, and ultimately, people and the spaces they inhabit. “Design shapes the rituals a space holds,” says Swanson. “This exhibition treats objects as talismans, grounding elements that hold energy in a room the way granite holds charge in the earth or the untouched forests hold a quiet, living presence that reshapes how we move within them.
[GLASS, SILK]
[COTTON, STEEL, FOAM]
The exhibition is structured into three conceptual zones, each inspired by a distinct Vermont landscape. Although the gallery reads as one continuous space, it is composed of three adjoining rooms that subtly transition into one another. The zones are defined through shifts in paint color, material, light, and texture - allowing visitors to move gradually between atmospheres.
[GLASS, GOLD FOIL]
[COTTON, WOOL]
[GLASS]
[VELVET, WOOL, SILK, COTTON, OAK]
[ZONE I]THE CURSED SPRING
Drawing from Brunswick Springs and regional folklore surrounding thaw and erasure, this section features Anne Greene Studio’s Isabella Chair as a symbol of hope and renewal. The embroidery emerged from an exploration of butterflies, their confident flirtations both intriguing and mysterious. KADNS lighting, inspired by the rhythmic essence of light expressed through brightness, warmth, shadow, and form, adds an emotional dimension that shapes spaces for comfort, connection, and purpose. The environment feels fluid, regenerative, and quiet. Deep blue walls envelop the room, creating an altar-like atmosphere, while subtle uplighting draws the eye upward toward the elevated ceiling, enhancing the sense of stillness and reverence.
[ZONE II]THE LIMINAL FOREST
Referencing the Bennington Triangle and the vertical disorientation of the Glastenbury Mountains, this zone introduces a wooden chair by Ford Bostwick informed by the geometry ofVermont’s “Witch Windows,” a regional architectural detail in which windows are installed diagonally within gabled walls, creating a tilted, almost uncanny visual rhythm across historic farmhouses. His sconces cast an elongated glow, their warm surfaces deepening and softening with ambient light and shifting subtly with the viewer’s perspective. Aydan Hüseynli presents functional sculptures that echo the structure and gesture of tree branches. Sheer drapery printed with a forest-scape filters the room, collapsing depth and softening edges so that visitors move through a layered woodland illusion. The atmosphere is ethereal, off-axis, and slightly destabilizing.
[ZONE III]THE CONDUCTIVE CORE
Inspired by the Rock of Ages Quarry and the grounding presence of Mount Mansfield, this section centers on granite, quartz, and dense materials that feel tectonic and permanent. Objects emphasize weight, structure, and conductivity. Works by Thomas Yang and Elizabeth Lenny are presented within a central tablescape layered with organic materials: moss, greenery, and restrained florals, creating a mineral-rich terrain. Ethan Streicher’s lighting introduces reflection and depth, reinforcing a grounded spatial presence. The composition invites viewers to experience the Vermont landscape at a miniature scale, as though surveying a condensed geological and botanical topography from above.
RECLAIMED SIDE TABLE
[WALNUT]
SUGAR JAR
[CERAMIC, GLAZE, QUARTZ]
[WALNUT]
[CERAMIC, GLAZE, QUARTZ]
Read more about this show on Wallpaper, Surface Magazine, & Dezeen
Press by Hello Human
Photography by Joseph Kramm
Press by Hello Human
Photography by Joseph Kramm
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THE THINNING VEIL
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