My brother once told me that if he goes anywhere where there are donuts, he will always buy one. It’s a literal sweet indulgence. donuts, in this scenario, are a charm: they not only allure, but they’re also ritualistic or a token of good luck. This process—the transmutation of mass-produced goods into objects of personal pleasure and charm—is made manifest in Jemi Gale’s new body of work donut king (paintings about love). Here, donuts are objects of, but also metaphors for a mode of sugary, hyperactive consumption, and the minor pleasures that accompany it: love and loving, desire, and indulgence.