Jeffrey Gibson, the artist set to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale, has sued his former gallery, Chicago’s Kavi Gupta, alleging that it has withheld more than $600,000.
In the lawsuit, filed in early May in United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Gibson claims that the gallery owes him $638,919.31 for works it has sold. Kavi Gupta, in a filing last week, denied the allegations, disputing the terms of the agreement outlined by the artist in his lawsuit and saying that the gallery had invested a significant amount in helping produce Gibson’s artworks.
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Gibson, who is based in Hudson, New York, is well-known for paintings and sculptures that apply styles derived from Western modernism and Native American craft. Many of these works feature texts borrowed from pop songs. He is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and is also of Cherokee descent. His US Pavilion will make him the first Indigenous artist ever to represent the country solo at the Venice Biennale.
Kavi Gupta and Gibson began conversations about working together in 2017, the year that the dealer featured his work in an Art Basel Miami Beach booth. According to Gibson’s lawsuit, in 2018, they came to an agreement for future sales in which the artist would keep 50 percent of the sales made by Kavi Gupta of his artwork.
But, Gibson’s lawsuit claims, “at some point the Gallery fell behind and failed to timely remit Gibson’s full share of sales proceeds.”
“Because the Gallery has stalled and failed to even negotiate in earnest a mutually acceptable payment plan,” the suit continues, “Gibson is now forced to commence this action to seek the full amount of sales proceeds which belong to him (together with additional compensation permitted by law).”
Gupta said in his affidavit that Gibson began claiming he was owed money in 2022, roughly two years after the gallery allegedly began advancing the artist funds in an effort to stem financial strain resulting from the pandemic. Gupta claimed that his gallery had paid vendor costs and production expenses for Gibson with the expectation that the gallery would get them back when works sold. This allegedly included the $57,000 spent by the gallery on Gibson’s current Aspen Art Museum exhibition, which opened last November.
The artist and the gallery appear to disagree on which funds would be reimbursed, however. According to Gibson, he only agreed to repay framing costs to the gallery for consigned works that came in unframed. According to Gupta, the gallery expected to receive more than just those costs.
In his affidavit, Gupta said that his gallery had spent $764,600 on supporting Gibson and that “Gibson has benefited substantially from the Gallery’s efforts.”
A legal representative for Gibson did not respond to a request for comment. Through his lawyer, Gupta declined to comment.
The lawsuit was filed ahead of various presentations of Gibson’s work in museums across the country. His work is in “Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969” at the CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art in Upstate New York, “Language in Times of Miscommunication” at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, and “Day Jobs” at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.
Gibson also edited a book about contemporary Indigenous art that releases this month, and will show his work later this year in a major survey of weaving and abstraction opening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The lawsuit preceded the announcement of his Venice Biennale pavilion in July.
Two other artists have left Kavi Gupta in recent months: Deborah Kass and Suchitra Mattai. Contacted by ARTnews, they did not specify the reasons for their departures.
Update, 8/7/23, 6:03 p.m.: Mention that Suchitra Mattai also left Kavi Gupta has been added to this article.