“I wanted to live this New York fantasy,” Charles Porch recalls of moving into his West Village brownstone, a historic property he acquired in 2020 after the VP of Global Partnerships for Instagram moved from Venice Beach in Los Angeles to lower Manhattan. Jed Lind, the sculptor-turned-designer he enlisted to help renovate the property, had over several years been guiding Porch away from his youthful IKEA era and toward a fine mix of old and new furnishings complemented by works collected from a network of emerging artists.
“His West Village brownstone was historically intact with soaring ceilings,” says Lind. “The previous owner [architect Gil Schafer] made some bold moves to make it appear more grandiose, so we pared it back for an understated, traditional feel.” That included a Pierre Augustin Rose sofa, ebonized coffee tables, and a custom bleached teak dining table by Michael O’Connell, “an incredible maker in Los Angeles,” Lind notes. These pieces share space with a selection of treasures (a painting by Whitney Bedford that Porch describes as “a modern take on a traditional horse painting,” vintage candlesticks, and an 18th-century mirror among them) that create a sense of dimension. “Jed has a real knack for objects—smalls, as he calls them—and did an excellent job bringing those through,” Porch effuses. “You get the organic pieces with this nod to vintage and traditional styles.”
“You should never cut corners on anything,” Lind explains of his penchant for the particulars. “The beauty of a project is in the details.” Indeed, everything seems to have come together in Porch’s West Village home, where he lived for a year before meeting his now-husband, Robert Denning, a philanthropist on the Met’s Board of Trustees. “This place was meant to be my New York pied-à-terre—the perfect one-bedroom with a fireplace. Then I got into a relationship, and it didn’t work like that anymore,” Porch laughs. The recently married couple has since relocated to an “in-between,” pre-baby space in Chelsea, which is now housing their combined collection of custom furniture and contemporary artworks—including the few pieces they’ve acquired together under a strict system that accounts for their contrasting tastes (“I love more traditional things, like Impressionism—he’s like, ‘That’s too safe,’” Porch quips).
Before the pair take on their next address, Porch gave CULTURED a look inside that first home—the one that sharpened his taste, honed his eye, and provided the early kindling for relationships with artists that the couple continues to foster in exciting new ways today.
Describe your journey into collecting.
I would describe myself as a budding collector. Now it’s really ramping up, but when I first moved to Los Angeles and met Jed, he was an artist—it was before he did interiors. We had a ton of artist friends, so I started collecting their work here and there. That’s one of the first things I ever invested in. I had IKEA furniture and these paintings in my 20s. Jed started to push me toward buying vintage, things that I would keep forever. The West Village brownstone had custom pieces that I’ll always have. The chaise he designed for this beautiful corner now sits in my new living room. The perfect dining room table might be a desk in a future place. He also helped me start to collect lighting—that’s been a really fun adventure.
My husband’s on the board of the Met, and we have started collecting contemporary art from, as I like to say, “baby artists” that are just coming up. In fact, we just hosted a cool artist dinner with about 12 artists that we’ve either collected from or are interested in—so we’re trying to create community around that. It’s really fun to find people when they’re just starting out and watch their work and careers evolve. I feel like we really have a rapport with them, and every time I see the piece [I’ve collected], it feels so much more personal because I know where it came from.
Where do you look for new talent?
I have an art advisor, Sophia Penske, who’s amazing. I also have a few friends who are kind of mega collectors, and I watch what they’re collecting as a filter. I was at Frieze this year with Sophia Cohen. I bought a really interesting Japanese piece from a Tokyo gallery we never heard of, but I just loved the piece so much. Now I follow the artist on Instagram, and we have this Instagram DM relationship. That one was just serendipity.
So many contemporary collectors say that they slide into artists’s Instagram DMs.
We hear from artists all the time that Instagram helps them develop relationships and sell work—and get galleries. They’re like, “I got this Berlin show through my Instagram,” It’s very cool that it helps them build their business.
What I also like is that you have this channel to the artist even after you’ve collected them, just to keep in touch. You get to see the work evolve there when they post their process. I just bought this piece from an artist named Jo Messer. She posts stories from her studio every morning, and there’s tons of work in there. It’s fun to see snippets of her life, and then see the piece in my house, and correlate the two.
Do you and your husband have similar tastes?
I think we’re pretty close. We have a system where we have to handshake agree before we get something, but sometimes I’ll get teeny tiny pieces without asking and slip them in. I love more traditional things, like Impressionism. I think he’s like, “That’s too safe.” But it takes me back to my childhood—I’m half French, and feel like I grew up in the Musée d’Orsay. On the contemporary side, we’ve started to align on what works for us. But again, we have the handshake.
Do you get a certain number of vetoes?
That’s such a good idea. I tend to do a bit of a marketing campaign on him, but we align pretty well. For our next foray, we want to start looking at older stuff. We’re gonna go to Maastricht for the first time this year. We’re really interested in Flemish work. That’s going to be a new lane for us. I like the idea of these contemporary and older things living together, eventually.
Who are the artists that you’re most excited about now?
Jo is obviously one of them. I love her. Phoebe Helander, she’s at PPOW. Elizabeth Glaessner—we just got a piece of hers. Asher Liftin. I love Yuan Fang, she’s a Chinese artist based in New York. Lorenzo Amos, I really like his work. Malù dalla Piccola.
Are you hosting these dinners regularly?
We’re going to make it a series. I was like This is an experiment. Let’s try. There’s no agenda. Some of these artists know each other already, and some don’t. It’s just a community-building experience for these young artists, and the first one went great.
Is it all artists, or do you invite curators?
No curators yet. We really don’t want it to be about business, but we have a couple of ideas. Robert’s on the task force for the new Tang Wing at the Met, so there are Met curators who could be really interesting. But we were actually thinking about inviting an established artist to attend, to share advice and wisdom. We’re experimenting.
in your life?
