Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

Otsego in Cooperstown. The place is so large it constantly requires attention. I am in charge of designing all the public spaces — the client is an Anglophile who loves classic English decorating, and I enjoy doing an old-school classic English interior scheme. How do you choose what goes into your interiors? Jeff Lincoln: I am looking to reinvent the wheel each time for each client. I try to tailor a project and the furnishings to each client. I try to avoid repetition. I start fresh with each client and try to find new things. I also try to obfuscate where things come from — I can look at any magazine article and know where the objects came from, which shop, or which floor and in which building. The last thing I want people to do is to walk into one of my interiors and say ‘I saw that coffee table at such and such.’ I want an interior that another designer would walk into and wonder where things came from. I want a design that can’t be replicated by anyone else. What do you see as important trends in interior design? Jeff Lincoln: The most important trend in interior design is the rise of the maker movement, and at the same time the rise of collectible design. The increase in resources for designers as well as clients has also given us all so many more choices. Today anyone can get access to all these unique things and that allows a different type of decorating — I can put together an interior for a client that can’t be replicated because I’m not using components from showrooms that are produced en masse. Tell me about the gallery in Southampton and what function it serves for you? Jeff Lincoln: The gallery’s core mission and premise is to show artwork in the context of important historical furniture, design and new collectible design. That was my core idea when I opened the gallery in 2016, and still is. Things are loosely arranged in vignettes to show how you can live with design and contemporary art. What are you working on now? Jeff Lincoln: I am working on a large townhouse on West 10th Street in Manhattan, I’m working on an oceanfront residence in Martha’s Vineyard, I’m working on a new construction house in Jupiter and I’m working on a cattle ranch west of Vero Beach — for this last project I am doing a ‘cracker house’, a one-story house with a porch on all 4 sides and for which I am using historical pieces from the gallery by Charlotte Perriand and others but also commissioning a lot of pieces from Green River Project, a hot design duo with an art world background based in Brooklyn that do furniture and interiors. They work a lot in wood, and seek to convey a simplicity and honesty of materials in their work which I admire. Tell us about some of the inventory at the gallery right now? Jeff Lincoln: There is a monumental Jeff Zimmerman chandelier that is a brand new creation. There is no question he is one of the most talented glass blowers at work today, though this piece is so large that the circular globes can be ordered in acrylic or glass. It is one of the largest pieces he has ever made of his iconic Vine design. On display now are two sofas in the main room by Oscar Niemeyer, a Jorge Zalszupin dining table as well as some Peter Lane planters. Then there is Wendell Castle from 2008, a rare rosewood version of his Wanderer coffee table. I have been fascinated with ceramics since the inception of the gallery, and so always exhibit various pieces by contemporary and historical makers. I am thrilled to have new works by Will Coggin, a Brooklyn ceramicist — his lamps and side tables are in new glaze finishes that the artist has been developing. A sunlit moment at the gallery with Nadia Yaron’s stacked landscape sculptures in wood and stone, abstract and totemic symbols of land, mountains, clouds and sky portals. 2022 Incollect Magazine 21