A Brooklyn artist says a Canadian art gallery damaged and destroyed several of his works by carelessly framing and handling them — costing him over $30,000, new court papers allege.
“I just want my money back,” artist Logan Hicks told The Post. “Every painting they destroyed is a painting that could have fed my kid or went towards my kid’s college.”
Hicks, a stencil and mural artist, says that he consigned roughly 20 pieces with Montreal gallery Station 16 starting in 2016 before asking for the return of piece “Bella Florichi” in 2017 after finding a buyer for it, according to his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Monday.
But the 50-year-old Williamsburg man — who’s been in the art world for 30 years — claims when he received the spray paint-on-canvas work back, he discovered that the gallery had folded the edges of the canvas and taped it with gaffer tape to force the painting to fit on a stretcher frame that was too small, according to the filing.
The piece — originally worth $12,500 — had to be sold at a discount for just $8,000 because of the damage caused from Hicks removing the tape, the suit says.
Hicks explained that he believes the gallery did this because of the size discrepancy between the metric measuring system used in Canada and the imperial system used in the US.
“I guess they didn’t bother to use custom stretchers so they used one that was as close as possible which ended up being one that was too small,” Hicks claimed. “When you stretch the painting on something that is too small part of the painting goes over the edge.”
“They didn’t want their collectors to see that part of the painting is not actually on the surface, it’s on the edge, so they used black gaffers tape to cover that up,” he said.
“They also did that on another painting which I didn’t catch right away because once I received that back I put it in storage,” Hicks said noting that that one was destroyed when he removed the tape which had eaten away at the canvas.
In total, one painting was damaged and five were destroyed, the suit alleges.
Two others were damaged with crease marks and two more were framed incorrectly using tape the damaged the works when it was removed — “effectively destroying the works and ruining their marketability,” the suit charges.
The total loss was roughly $30,500 but the gallery won’t cover his losses, the suit claims.
“Every time I approach them on something, they pass the buck,” Hicks said. “They have made zero attempt to rectify this financially.”
He added, “For me making art is all about how I feel and all the emotion. Once it leaves my studio, it becomes a business.”
Andrew Gerber, Hicks’ lawyer, told The Post, “We are extremely dismayed by Station 16’s conduct. We gave them multiple opportunities to make things right by Mr. Hicks.”
Station 16 did not immediately return a request for comment.
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NYC artist says gallery cost him $30K in damaged paintings: suit - New York Post
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