Two Decades In, Gallerist Ben Brown Is Setting His Sights on Milan

Ben Brown is not one to mistrust his convictions. In 2007, he championed Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne in London after three decades without a show in the city, convinced that the market had yet to catch up. “I believed in them, so I bought half the show myself,” Brown told Artsy over coffee in his new New York office. Les Lalanne, as they are known collectively, were active from the 1960s onwards. Known for their Surrealist bronze sculptures—whimsical yet functional pieces depicting animal forms—the pair remained somewhat niche for decades.

Demand for the artists in recent years has skyrocketed, proving Brown’s conviction. Just this October, a Lalanne auction held by Christie’s New York totaled $59 million. This ethos is the bedrock of his international gallery: a genuine, personal belief in the artists he represents and works with.

“I own work by every artist I’ve represented,” said Brown. “I bought from almost every show because I believe it’s a bit like if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”

A former director at Sotheby’s, Brown opened his first gallery in Mayfair in 2004. In the two decades since, he’s established a formidable worldwide presence, with gallery spaces in London and Hong Kong, as well as a newly minted office in New York. All the while, his unwavering commitment to his artists has never faltered, as illustrated by partnerships with artists such as German photographer Candida Höfer, whom he has worked with for two decades. Brown first showcased Höfer’s work when he opened his gallery in 2004. Now, 20 years later, he is presenting her exhibition “The Order of Beauty” in London, on view until February 1, 2025.

Now, Brown is setting his sights on Milan, revealing to Artsy that he plans to open an office and a gallery there in the near future. Why? Partly, he says, because “Italy has replaced England as a fiscal paradise within the E.U.”

How Ben Brown built his gallery empire

Brown’s entry into the art world came at a young age, a lineage he owes to his mother, Rosamund Brown, an acclaimed British painter who moved to Hong Kong in the 1960s and played an instrumental role in introducing Western artists to Hong Kong. He navigated through various roles at museums and galleries in his early career before undertaking a 10-year tenure at Sotheby’s London as a director of modern and contemporary art. For the determined Brown, opening a gallery felt like a natural next step.

“When you’re ambitious, and you’re in an auction house, you either want to be the chairman, the big boss, or you want to run your own business,” said Brown. “I come from a family where nobody’s ever really worked for anybody else, so I felt a bit the same way.”

His inaugural exhibition featured Höfer, who had represented Germany at the Venice Biennale the year before but was relatively little known among a London audience. Brown took the chance to share her “Libraries” photographs in his first exhibition. In about a month and a half, he recalls selling about 28 photographs to predominantly local collectors.

Over the years, Brown’s program has developed to encompass a varied group of modern and contemporary artists. The gallery has staged exhibitions with artists such as British painter Tony Bevan and Cuban sculptor Yoan Capote, as well as several 20th-century masters, including Italian artist Alighiero Boetti and German painter Gerhard Richter. Then, in 2009, Brown introduced his roster to the Asian market by establishing his second gallery in Hong Kong, just as its contemporary art market was beginning to percolate.

“I looked at Hong Kong because I was born and brought up in Hong Kong,” said Brown. “The difference was that in New York, you had a huge market and horrible competition, and in Hong Kong, you had no market and no competition. And I thought I would go for the no market, no competition. I say no competition because all the Hong Kong collectors and the mainland Chinese collectors were primarily interested in Chinese art.”

His inaugural exhibition presented work by Richter, Ed Ruscha, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, among others. His program has continued to maintain a stable roster of prominent artists, such as Boetti and Les Lalanne, while introducing then-emerging names, such as Ethiopian American artist Awol Erizku and Cuban American painter José Parlá.

“My primary focus in Hong Kong has always been Hong Kong because that’s where my strength is, and that’s what I’m best at, and that’s what my directors have been emphasizing,” said Brown. He credits his success in the city to his exhibitions, including a notable recent show featuring Richter and Sean Scully. Despite acknowledging the increasingly saturated competition, Brown remains committed: “It’s expensive, but it’s been worthwhile.”

That said, Brown did eventually expand his operations to the United States, first to a private viewing room in New York’s Upper East Side in 2019. Then, in 2021, he opened a seasonal gallery in Palm Beach, Florida. And at the 20-year mark, Brown is continuing to allocate attention to the American market, “which is why we’re sitting in an office in New York,” he said.

Adapting to a London art market

Adaptability, for Brown, is always at the core of his gallery’s strategy. In London, for instance, the impacts of Brexit continue to disrupt the market. “It was pretty obvious from day one of Brexit that London was going to lose some of its preeminence in the art world,” Brown said. He points out that the main hurdle in a post-Brexit market is England’s separation from the greater European market, adding a layer of paperwork and transport fees.

“England was in a very enviable position until Brexit, which has been a calamity on many levels—both in the British economy, obviously, but also in terms of us and dealing with how to get paintings in and out of Europe and how to maximize the efficiencies of having a single market rather than multiple markets,” he said.

But despite these impacts, Brown remains optimistic, viewing this change as a temporary challenge rather than a kiss of death. “I always said that if Brexit happens, we’re going to have 10 years of shit, and then we’ll sort ourselves out because we’re Brits, and we’re quite good at getting on,” he said.

Taking the next step to Milan

While Brown has no intention of shutting down his London gallery, he will soon have a permanent foothold in Europe, revealing to Artsy that he intends to set up an office in Milan. “Everybody likes going to Italy, but I like going to Italy on business as well as pleasure,” he joked.

The choice of location was far from random. Brown is fluent in Italian and was responsible for initiating Italian art sales during his stint at Sotheby’s. His program prominently features Italian artists such as Boetti and Lucio Fontana; Brown has organized three significant exhibitions of the latter’s work at his galleries. Additionally, he was a committee member of the Bologna Art Fair for five years, deepening his connections with the Italian art communities. Most recently, the gallery was involved in a massive Les Lalanne exhibition, “Planète Lalanne,” at Palazzo Rota Ivancich during the 60th Venice Biennale.