A Brooklyn artist says a Canadian artwork gallery weakened and wrecked many of his operates by carelessly framing and handling them — costing him above $30,000, new courtroom papers allege.
“I just want my cash again,” artist Logan Hicks advised The Submit. “Every painting they destroyed is a painting that could have fed my kid or went in direction of my kid’s college or university.”
Hicks, a stencil and mural artist, suggests that he consigned around 20 parts with Montreal gallery Station 16 commencing in 2016 in advance of inquiring for the return of piece “Bella Florichi” in 2017 just after locating a buyer for it, according to his Manhattan Supreme Courtroom lawsuit from Monday.
But the 50-calendar year-aged Williamsburg guy — who’s been in the art planet for 30 years — claims when he acquired the spray paint-on-canvas operate again, he found out that the gallery had folded the edges of the canvas and taped it with gaffer tape to force the portray to in good shape on a stretcher body that was too little, in accordance to the submitting.
The piece — originally worthy of $12,500 — had to be bought at a lower price for just $8,000 mainly because of the problems brought on from Hicks eradicating the tape, the accommodate suggests.
Hicks described that he thinks the gallery did this mainly because of the sizing discrepancy concerning the metric measuring procedure applied in Canada and the imperial procedure employed in the US.
“I guess they did not bother to use tailor made stretchers so they utilized a single that was as shut as achievable which ended up becoming a single that was also smaller,” Hicks claimed. “When you extend the painting on some thing that is too little component of the painting goes more than the edge.”
“They did not want their collectors to see that section of the portray is not essentially on the floor, it’s on the edge, so they made use of black gaffers tape to go over that up,” he reported.
“They also did that on a further painting which I didn’t capture ideal absent mainly because once I acquired that again I place it in storage,” Hicks reported noting that that just one was destroyed when he removed the tape which experienced eaten away at the canvas.
In full, a single portray was weakened and 5 were being destroyed, the suit alleges.
Two many others have been ruined with crease marks and two extra have been framed incorrectly using tape the harmed the is effective when it was eliminated — “effectively destroying the performs and ruining their marketability,” the go well with fees.
The full decline was about $30,500 but the gallery won’t go over his losses, the accommodate claims.
“Every time I approach them on some thing, they go the buck,” Hicks reported. “They have produced zero endeavor to rectify this fiscally.”
He added, “For me earning art is all about how I experience and all the emotion. Once it leaves my studio, it gets a small business.”
Andrew Gerber, Hicks’ law firm, explained to The Post, “We are very dismayed by Station 16’s perform. We gave them many opportunities to make matters suitable by Mr. Hicks.”
Station 16 did not promptly return a request for remark.