Over the summer, Clifford Prince King put his belongings in storage and spent the season abroad. Months of transience may seem like an unusual move for the photographer, who captures his relationships and experiences as a queer Black man as they often unfold in interior spaces. His autobiographical images find value in privacy—sun-dappled friends and lovers in various states of togetherness, whether slow dancing shirtless in a kitchen, braiding each other’s hair mid-blunt, gently embracing in a steamy shower, or other moments of quiet beauty. They also wield a disarming intimacy, seemingly collapsing the walls between audience and subject thanks to the feelings of softness, safety, and self-realization they engender.

As he was entering his 30s, though, King yearned to see how nature, unexplored locales, and total strangers might influence his photographs and the interiority they explore. He planned to spend this past summer at artist residences—BOFFO on Fire Island, Light Work in Syracuse, and Eighth House in Vermont—with vacations in São Paulo and the Cayman Islands in between. He continued to work but captured entirely new subjects enveloped in lush natural settings. Using a 35mm film camera to lend the work a timeless grainy quality, King bathed his objects in the warm natural light of summer and photographed them in gentle poses of affection and vulnerability: a capoeira dancer caught mid-handstand on a rooftop, a couple standing close together by the waterfront on a misty afternoon.

Thirteen of his photographs from that summer star in “Let Me Know When You Get Home,” an outdoor exhibition commissioned by Public Art Fund on more than 300 JCDecaux bus shelters and newsstands across New York City, Boston, and Chicago. It’s King’s biggest canvas yet—no small feat given his résumé includes projects for Calvin Klein and JW Anderson—and a poetic pillar of LGBTQ+ love and the representation King never saw as a child growing up in Tucson. On view through May 26 and curated by Public Art Fund’s Katerina Stathopoulou, the six-foot-tall images transmit feelings of warmth and comfort to commuters during cold season.

They also impart one of King’s biggest revelations from uprooting himself and spending a summer abroad: “home” is not strictly a physical place with four walls, but a reflection of one’s headspace and community. Shortly after the show opened, King caught up with Surface about talking to strangers, being in nature, and moving forward.

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Though art fair week in Los Angeles may be focused on Frieze and Felix, there’s a wealth of satellite design shows around the city that are worth visiting. From Gallery Fumi’s sterling entrance at Sized and Cuff Studio’s pristine new showroom to Zizipho Poswa’s towering ceramics at the recently opened Southern Guild, check out our editor’s guide at the link below and stay tuned for more on-the-ground coverage as the week progresses.

If the Valencia-based interiors studio Masquespacio has a signature move, it’s a thoughtful but dramatic application of color. One of its most memorable projects, Milan’s Ichi Station is no exception: an abundance of illuminated peach-toned glass accents send visitors to a fantasy of Space Age futurism. Within the restaurant’s tunnel, diners can look on as sushi chefs ardently prepare the evening’s courses. Warm oak and leather accents preserve a sense of calm in the vibrant setting, which includes one bold contrast in the form of its cobalt blue powder room.

The menu includes one or two twists, too: diners can choose from more traditional Nigiri to Uramaki with local influences in the form of briny olives, which make an appearance in Ichi Station’s spicy tuna Uramaki Calabria, or the basil and pine nuts that lend the Uramaki Liguria an off-kilter twist. What’s more, since Milan is so well-known among the design set, it’s only fitting that the restaurant offers “mosaic” boxes of colorful sushi that allows for a choose-your-own-adventure mélange of eel, scallops, red prawn, and tamagoyaki.

Lauren S. Thompson has spent the past three years studying everything about tetrahedrons to inform her debut Tetrastella collection, which channels the shape’s frequencies and patterns into clean-lined marble furniture with geometries specifically crafted to resonate with human energy. After debuting at New York’s Spring Place this past fall, the Los Angeles local is preparing a must-see show during Frieze before bringing the full collection to Milan—and beginning anew with softer shapes in the future.

For the past 16 years, the gallery and artist residency Southern Guild has been South Africa-based. That changed last week when it opened the doors to its new Melrose Hill outpost. The inaugural exhibitions—“Mother Tongues,” a group show featuring 26 artists from Africa, and a solo show of sculptures by Zizipho Poswa—drew art-world notables to the West Coast in advance of this week’s Frieze art fair. Guests took the opportunity to catch up over wine from South African label IBest Wines, founded by collector Ingrid Best.

When was it? Feb. 22

Where was it? Southern Guild, Los Angeles

Who was there? Trevyn McGowan, Julie McGowan, Tyler Mitchell, Rich Mnisi, Andrea Delph, Eva Seta, Jacqueline Hamilton, and Martin Magner.

Some might see the Venetian Gothic architecture of the University of Pennsylvania’s Arthur Ross Gallery as imposing or overwhelming, yet paper artist Barbara Earl Thomas effortlessly transforms it into an ethereal sanctuary bathed in light and shadows.

Here, we ask an artist about the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Barbara Earl Thomas, 76, Seattle.

Title of work: The Transformation Room.

Where to see it: Arthur Ross Gallery, Philadelphia, until May 21.

Three words to describe it: “Be here now.”

What was on your mind at the time: The Transformation Room is born of obsession and my need to incessantly cut until the material ceases to resemble itself and what remains is the experience of light and shadow. The light is cool, while the wall color warms and animates the imagery. It’s always moving. The making is born from a desire to step beyond the frame of my two-dimensional works into the illusionary world behind my figures where light and shadow become the subject and activate my viewer’s experience.

I want the space to surprise, confuse, confound, and dislocate while it simultaneously holds viewers in a shared experience on a common ground. What happens when inquiry is the point and there are no wrong answers, just an experience to navigate as a starting point? It’s disarming. We need to be disarmed.

Buster + Punch launched in 2013, creating desirable home fittings that elevated everyday hardware into must-have design pieces. Founder Massimo Buster Minale, an architect and custom motorcycle maker, identified a need for premium finishes and fittings for his own projects, eventually leading to the brand’s creation. A decade later, Buster + Punch’s masterful collections span lighting, furniture, accessories, hardware, and kitchen and bathroom designs.

Surface Says: For Buster + Punch, finishes aren’t an afterthought, they’re everything—and it shows. Just try finding a wider assortment of premium brass light switches, handles, faucets, and fixtures.

Against all odds, artist buildings are surviving in an expensive New York City.

This Portuguese salt mine puts on underground shows about climate woes.

An anthropologist explains exactly how humans evolved to use everyday tools.

Scientists reveal a remarkably complete 16-foot-long fossil of an aquatic reptile.