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Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, Partner & Global Director at Nicodim

Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, Partner & Global Director at Nicodim

Samantha Bloom
Published on Feb 22 2024
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BEN LEE

Ben Lee is a beloved figure in the LA art scene, renowned for his legendary after-hours art parties and exquisite artist dinners. He carved out his identity in Los Angeles while serving as the Librarian, then Art Book Fair Curator at Gagosian before finding his community at Nicodim Gallery, where he spent over six years working closely with founder Mihai Nicodim. Recently appointed as Partner, Ben continues to leave an indelible mark on the art world: don't miss Nicodim's upcoming solo presentation of Tali Lennox, sure to be a highlight of LA Art week. 

A guide to Ben’s LA: 

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Photo Courtesy of Artist

  • The most energizing LA art experience: CorePower Yoga sculpt classes in the old Vivid entertainment building in Studio City. One receives a great workout with a crash course in the latest pop music, cosmetic surgery, and Hollywood gossip all in the span of sixty minutes. It’s the perfect microcosm of Valley life.
  • The artist who currently defines LA: Karon Davis is Los Angeles. She’s an artist, mother, organizer, performer, enthusiast. Everyone here has had a moment with one of her pieces at Wilding Cran, Jeffrey Deitch, or one of the fairs. She’s semi-impossible to reach on the phone, but when she sees you, she’ll hug you and it feels like she’s always been right there. 
  • Favorite LA art adventure: Felix Art Fair! It combines Los Angeles’s unique cultural history with its cultural future: the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel hosted the first Academy Awards, Hockney painted its pool, and internationally renowned tattoo artist Dr. Woo’s Hideaway Suite is tucked-away on the premises—if there’s a bandaged celeb walking through the lobby, chances are she came from Woo’s secret studio. Exhibitors at the fair, who are mostly on the emerging tip, curate their wares specifically to the hotel rooms. The layout forces a bit more creativity in installation than the standard art fair and makes it easy for visitors to imagine the displayed works hanging in their homes. It’s also the only fair one can meander through wearing his bikini.
  • Currently reading: The Juliette Society, by Sasha Grey. A film student immerses herself in an underground sex society for the rich and powerful—immediately relatable for everyone in the art world, and Sasha is a Valley Girl, like me!
  • The most essential voices in art news: Michael Slenske (LA Magazine) has the best ear and narrative voice to celebrate the city’s heroes and elevate its underappreciated talent. Janelle Zara’s (artnet and everywhere else) Instagram stories are full of hot takes that are fun to nod along with/type out long reactions in drafts that you never end up sending for fear of being quoted/parrot when you feel like spicing-up the small talk at openings. Shana Nys Dambrot (LA Weekly) seeks out noteworthy local art venues and artists who don’t have much PR infrastructure and trumpets them from the front page of the Weekly. Her reviews are insightful, witty, and effortlessly employ a million-dollar vocabulary.
  • Before the fair, I’ll get my (coffee/smoothie/breakfast) at: The Bottega Louie in WeHo has a gorgeous back patio, great people-watching, and the prettiest dessert spreads you can look at, but not eat if you’re going to browse Felix in your bikini.  
  • The last photo in my camera roll: Depending on the day, it’s Fabio, my Chinese Crested rescue, Nicolette Mishkan, my artist girlfriend who rescued me, or Nicolette with Fabio.
  • I buy my supplies at: Before I got sober: I think his name was Jay? Post-sobriety: The Erewhon and Aesop stores in Studio City.
  • The last rabbit hole I went down:  The discography of the cult death metal label Seraphic Decay Records. It had a short but prolific existence from 1990 to 1992. Eunuch Foreskin, one of its artists, wrote the song “DISEMBODIED,” which became the basis for a series of group exhibitions I curated for Nicodim.
  • Non-museum/gallery with the best art collection: The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation is a beautiful legacy collection that is much greater than the sum of its parts. The estate, which was once home to the Weisman family, is as much a portrait of the late Mr. Weisman and his wife, Billie Milam Weisman, as it is a gallery. It is a monument to how enriching it can be to live with art, and how one can live forever through a collection.
  • How do you prepare to be creative? I’ll text my girlfriend a thousand dog videos, pace around the gallery anxiously, think of a thousand things I could do other than the task at hand, and just when the scythe of a deadline is knocking at my door, inspiration strikes!
Object Lessons w_ The Landing Gallery @ Frank Gehry_Chuck Arnoldi loft.jpeg

Object Lessons w: The Landing Gallery @ Frank Gehry:Chuck Arnoldi loft

Header Image: Tali Lenox