In Tulum town’s only openly queer space Fruity Bar, Benjamin Lee Richie Handler presented a new incarnation of his ‘The Olivia Neutron Bomb Variety Show’. Dressed up as alter-ego Olivia Newton Bomb - Richie Handler performed his thoroughly (in fact rather explicitly) sexual, inspirational, and musical self-help lecture on how to cope with a multi-verse of identities coalesced into a single reality.
Olivia recorded a short feature film in Tulum with various members of the residency, transferring her self-help principles to illustrate how to manifest oneself in one’s multiple identities simultaneously. ‘You too can realize, metabolize, and rationalize a multitude of yourself in the now!’ she karaoked, grooved and inspired the audience to join her on her journey.
Nicodim Gallery's Global Director is Benjamin Lee Ritchie Handler. While earning a Masters degree in Library and Information Science at UCLA, Ritchie Handler toured internationally with a rock band and worked at a number of art institutions including The Hammer, LACMA, and MOCA. In 2011, he landed at Gagosian and facilitated a number of interactive installations including a courtroom that archived its own proceedings in an obsolete language with Piero Golia, a functioning kitchen with Urs Fischer and his chef, Mina Stone, and a panopticon-cum-record store with Kim Gordon and Feeding Tube Records. He curated FLASH FLASH FLASH: An Exhibition As Tattoo Parlor, which appeared at the 2016 New York Art Book Fair, the 2017 Los Angeles Art Book Fair, and the 2017 SFMOMA Anniversary Gala, providing limited-edition, hand-numbered permanent tattoos by a diverse set of artists ranging from Kenneth Anger to Genesis Breyer P—Orridge to Henry Taylor. Each edition of tattoos sold out quickly, and bootleg, unnumbered editions began appearing instantly. At Nicodim, Ritchie Handler has curated the critically-acclaimed groupedByYear exhibitions Homeward Bound (2017), Formal Encounters (2018), BioPerversity (2018), and The Adderall and the Ecstasy (2018), and implemented INFLUENCES, a series of events exploring the relationships between art and psychoactive substances in a gallery setting.
