Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson, who was recently selected to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale, is suing Chicago’s Kavi Gupta Gallery for allegedly withholding more than $600,000 in sales proceeds.  

In a complaint filed at New York’s Northern District Court in May, Gibson said that he began consigning pieces through Gupta’s gallery in late 2017. He claims the two parties settled on a typical 50-50 profit split, with the understanding that Kavi Gupta would deduct the cost of framing “off the top” of the purchase price before equally allocating the balance of sales. 

The gallery initially adhered to that agreement, Gibson said, but eventually fell behind and failed to pay the artist his share. Gibson alleged that Gupta now owes him $638,919 in unpaid proceeds. 

“Because the gallery has stalled and failed to even negotiate in earnest a mutually acceptable payment plan, Gibson is now forced to commence this action to seek the full amount of sales proceeds which belong to him,” the complaint reads.   

Kavi Gupta, the gallery’s founder and namesake, addressed Gibson’s claims in an affidavit filed on August 4. In the document, he corroborates the 50-50 deal between the gallery and the artist, albeit with one critical distinction: that all production expenses, not just framing costs, were to be taken off the top of sales before the proceeds were shared.  

In other words, Gupta argued that he doesn’t owe the artist because the gallery already fronted him the money to make his work. “These expenses must be reimbursed before any profits can be split,” the dealer said. 

“Since 2018, the gallery invested in reimbursable production and vendor costs including, but not limited to, videographers, photographers, performers, and materials such as clothing, drums, metals, beads, and other components, all utilized to create and produce Gibson’s work,” reads the dealer’s affidavit. “At no time were such reimbursable costs limited to framing expenses.” 

In addition to production costs, Gupta claims the gallery has invested “over $764,600” to develop and promote Gibson’s career and work. 

Attorneys for Gibson and Gupta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In recent years, Gibson has become one of the institutional art world’s most celebrated artists. His colorful art, which blends Native American craftwork with references to politics, pop culture, and his queer identity, has been the subject of critically acclaimed shows at the Denver Art Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, among others. In 2019, he was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. 

Next year, Gibson will become the first indigenous artist to have a solo exhibition at the U.S. Venice Biennale pavilion.  

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(CNN) —DJ Casper, born Willie Perry, Jr., has died after a battle with cancer, his wife told CNN affiliate ABC7 Chicago on Monday.

The Chicago native was reportedly 58. CNN has reached out to his family for comment.

Casper was responsible for the popular song “Cha Cha Slide,” which came out 23 years ago this month. Coming off of his “Cha-Cha Slide: The Original Slide Album,” the track gave way to a popular line dance that is still performed at events all over the world.

[embedded content]Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide” has quickly become a staple at events from proms and weddings to corporate functions and more – wherever dance is a part of a celebration – thanks to its easy dancability and the way it fits into the Black tradition of line dances including the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.

Such traditions are not unfamiliar to the world at large due in part to the show “Soul Train,” which celebrated Black music artists and the art of line dancing well before some of today’s most popular dances were invented.

Casper told ABC7 during an interview in May that he was surprised by his song’s international success. “When I first did it, I did it as an aerobic exercise for my nephew at Bally’s,” he said. “From there, it just took off. Elroy Smith from WGCI grabbed ahold of it.”

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Hollywood Minute 8/8: “Oppenheimer” extends Imax run

(CNN) — DJ Casper, born Willie Perry, Jr., has died after a battle with cancer, his wife told CNN affiliate ABC7 Chicago on Monday.

The Chicago native was reportedly 58. CNN has reached out to his family for comment.

Casper was responsible for the popular song “Cha Cha Slide,” which came out 23 years ago this month. Coming off of his “Cha-Cha Slide: The Original Slide Album,” the track gave way to a popular line dance that is still performed at events all over the world.

Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide” has quickly become a staple at events from proms and weddings to corporate functions and more – wherever dance is a part of a celebration – thanks to its easy dancability and the way it fits into the Black tradition of line dances including the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.

Such traditions are not unfamiliar to the world at large due in part to the show “Soul Train,” which celebrated Black music artists and the art of line dancing well before some of today’s most popular dances were invented.

Casper told ABC7 during an interview in May that he was surprised by his song’s international success. “When I first did it, I did it as an aerobic exercise for my nephew at Bally’s,” he said. “From there, it just took off. Elroy Smith from WGCI grabbed ahold of it.”

DJ Casper, the creator of the ‘Cha Cha Slide,’ has died at age 58. https://t.co/7KFnNwjVig

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) August 8, 2023

DJ Casper, born Willie Perry, Jr., has died after a battle with cancer, his wife told CNN affiliate ABC7 Chicago on Monday.

The Chicago native was reportedly 58. CNN has reached out to his family for comment.

Casper was responsible for the popular song “Cha Cha Slide,” which came out 23 years ago this month. Coming off of his “Cha-Cha Slide: The Original Slide Album,” the track gave way to a popular line dance that is still performed at events all over the world.

Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide” has quickly become a staple at events from proms and weddings to corporate functions and more – wherever dance is a part of a celebration – thanks to its easy dancability and the way it fits into the Black tradition of line dances including the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.

Such traditions are not unfamiliar to the world at large due in part to the show “Soul Train,” which celebrated Black music artists and the art of line dancing well before some of today’s most popular dances were invented.

Casper told ABC7 during an interview in May that he was surprised by his song’s international success. “When I first did it, I did it as an aerobic exercise for my nephew at Bally’s,” he said. “From there, it just took off. Elroy Smith from WGCI grabbed ahold of it.”

Rodney McMillian is an artist with works in nearly all of America’s top contemporary and modern art museums. His paintings have hung in Oslo, Norway and London, England. Now, the Irmo-born son comes home.

The Columbia Museum of Art acquired two paintings by McMillian. The yearlong feat is from the Contemporaries board of volunteers, who raise funds and seek new work for the museum’s contemporary art collection. 

McMillian was joined by his family and friends at CMA on Aug. 7 to present the works, where the Los Angeles-based artist was given a key to the city of Columbia, and presented a resolution from the General Assembly. 

“They say you’re never a prophet in your own town, so when your hometown begins to recognize you it should mean something,” said State Sen. Todd Rutherford, the minority leader who represents Richland County. “It should mean something for those of us that have watched from afar, seeing the artwork be created and seeing all the things that you’ve been able to do; to take history and bring it present.”

Rutherford and McMillian grew up together. 

McMillian is a prominent voice in 21st Century contemporary American art. Rooted in landscape painting, McMillian examines the intersections of place, race, gender and politics in his mixed-media collections.

One of the acquired works is “Twice Painted,” a still life of empty flower vases. It’s a dark piece, with the vases painted near-black, and the background all but swallowing the light. It’s simple in object and small in stature — a change from most of McMillian’s large-scale works — but “Twice Painted” holds your attention; there’s something to be found in the blackness. 

In contrast, the CMA also acquired a work from McMillian’s collection, “The Body Politic,” an exploration and damnation of America’s history of experimentation and “medical exploitation” of Black people.

The painting, “Untitled (For Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosely),” dominates the wall upon which it hangs. Black and purple tributaries weave through murky yellow and green, like a marsh bleeding into an estuary. Along the bottom of the piece is a quote from OBGYN and activist, Dr. Reagan McDonald-Mosley. It glares in red, blocky letters: “You can’t educate your way out of the problem. You can’t health-care-access your way out of the problem. There’s something inherently wrong with the system that’s not valuing the lives of Black women equally to White women.” 

“Being able to have an artwork that really speaks to the vast disparities in the systemic inequities as it comes to your women’s bodies is incredibly profound and powerful to me, and I hope that it will be for you, as well,” said Columbia City Councilwoman Aditi Bussells, an epidemiologist and Contemporaries member who helped acquire McMillian’s works. Bussells and Councilman Peter Brown were on-hand to present McMillian with the key to the city. 

McMillian’s works hang in CMA’s second-level Contemporary Art Gallery, just right of Mao, a 10-work series of Andy Warhol’s Mao Zedong portraits. As part of CMA’s Collection, the works will be a permanent fixture at the Main Street museum. 

And while the acquisition took a year to pull off, CMA and McMillian aren’t through working together. 

Speaking to the crowd at the private Aug. 7 event, McMillian announced a solo exhibition at CMA, slated for 2025. 

“I’m just deeply, deeply touched,” McMillian said of his time with CMA thus far. “And I can’t wait to keep seeing you around as we build this show, in a couple of years.” 

While he said McMillian’s announcement was “a surprise to you and me both,” CMA Curator Michael Neumeister said the exhibit will be created specifically for the museum, but planning is in the early stages.

Karissa Valencia is a deeply innovative and award-winning creative in the children’s animation space. Valencia is the first California Native American showrunner, and the creator, executive producer and showrunner of Netflix’s Spirit Rangers, a fantasy-adventure preschool series that celebrates community, nature and the rich heritage of Native American storytelling.

“Karissa is a creative visionary — a star who’s built an incredible team, and who casts a warm glow on everything and everyone she works with,” offers Heather Tilert, Director of Preschool Content at Netflix.

In celebration of her work on Spirit Rangers, Valencia has received several accolades including inclusion in The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Kids Entertainment Power List, Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch, and Animation Magazine’s Rising Stars of Animation.

“Through Spirit Rangers, Karissa Valencia, along with the largely Native creative team she has built and the tribal leaders who gave permission to tell their stories, beautifully celebrates several historically silenced cultures and challenges the notion that all Native American and Indigenous people are the same,” says Joely Proudfit, Ph.D., Native Production Consultant on Spirit Rangers.

Prior to developing Spirit Rangers, Valencia wrote for preschool favorites such Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins, Vampirina, T.O.T.S and The Chicken Squad. Valencia is a member of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, and currently resides in Los Angeles. Forbes sat down with Karissa Valencia to talk about her inspirations, life journey and career moves.

Goldie Chan: Hello Karissa, thank you for joining Forbes. What has been your favorite project to work on?

Karissa Valencia: I’ve been lucky enough to work on so many amazing projects during my career. Writing for kids is extremely fulfilling! We get to make them laugh and create characters that can directly impact how they’ll grow up and view the world. With that in mind, I have to say that the most fulfilling project I’ve worked on is Spirit Rangers. It was both a career and personal goal all wrapped in one. Creating a show where an Indigenous family exists in the present day, while also believing their culture is magic, has been a dream come true. Growing up on the Chumash reservation in the Santa Ynez Valley in California, I was fortunate to be surrounded by my culture. But when I would leave, I only saw my culture represented in my school’s history books or as a caricature in TV and Film. I’m so happy that Spirit Rangers is part of a new wave of Indigenous media that combats those stereotypes. Spirit Rangers is also the first job I’ve ever had where I wasn’t the only Indigenous person in the room. We have had over 100 Indigenous crew members who worked with our team of veterans at Netflix and SuperProd. It has been an incredible collaboration. I’m so proud of the content we have all made together, but also how we made it. Representation behind the scenes is just as important as what’s on screen.

Chan: How did you break into animation?

Valencia: Right after I graduated from Syracuse University in 2014, I had the opportunity to join Nickelodeon Animation Studios as an intern (“Nick-tern”). I worked in the Talent Development Department assisting the Writing and Artist Programs. It was such an incredible intro into the world of animation and truthfully, the ’90s kid in me was fan-girling every day. The community was extremely welcoming and I met so many incredible people.

Chan: How does your tribe and your greater Native American identity and community impact and inspire you?

Valencia: Great question! I feel proud to be Indigenous every day, especially as a California Native. My tribe’s resilience and perseverance to keep our culture alive was what motivated me to do the same for our community. It’s the reason why Spirit Rangers exists. I am also constantly in awe of our Native Youth. Watching our young Indigenous climate activists fight to protect our wildlife and planet is inspirational. They’re keeping Indigenous communities as part of the conversation and solution for climate change, which I greatly admire. I’m a huge fan of our National Parks and after realizing I had never met an Indigenous park ranger in my own ancestral land, it inspired me to create a family of park rangers in Spirit Rangers.

Chan: Describe your personal brand.

Valencia: I’m a storyteller with a passion for representation in front of and behind the camera. I enjoy challenging old Hollywood and creating spaces for artists to be themselves. As someone who is part of several minority groups, I enjoy writing stories about underdogs who learn to embrace who they are.

Chan: What is a book or podcast that you’re reading or listening to now that you’d recommend?

Valencia: There are so many! First one to come to mind is “The Screenwriting Life” with Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna. Their perspective is so honest and genuine. They tackle the emotional side of getting to the core of a script or being a writer in general. I also laugh out loud to “Scam Goddess.” The host is hilarious as she unpacks the wildest scams and stories of con artists. And last but not least, I’ve also been really enjoying “Pod Crushed” where different celebrities share personal stories from their Middle School years. Their first crushes or embarrassing stories feel like they’re straight out of a movie.

Chan: What is a life lesson you’d share with your younger self?

Valencia: “Be Yourself.” The cheesiest, but simplest advice. The modern world makes it so easy to assimilate and move away from who we are. In my case, my Indigenous or Mexican roots felt easy to move away from when I was the only one in the room. But as soon as I embraced who I was, my family, my culture, everything started to click into place and my voice as an artist began to shine through.

Chan: What are you working on now?

Valencia: I’m happy to share that we’re currently working on Season 3 of Spirit Rangers. We have incredible new ocean characters and get to see beautiful new animation of ocean and beaches. We also have an amazing new voice cast, tribal partnerships, and new writers. An episode I am personally very proud of is one that I co-wrote with former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. She is someone I look up to as a fellow Indigenous woman writer and brought a new perspective into the writers room. I can’t wait for everyone to see her episode!

Chan: Any career advice for this year?

Valencia: As a new showrunner, a piece of advice I wish I listened to sooner was that resting and recharging is part of our jobs. I love showrunning and can easily fall into the trap of working too much. Luckily, writing about National Parks for four years has only inspired me to visit so many new ones this year!

The special collection — curated by Samsung and sourced by Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí — brings 12 iconic, surrealist paintings to The Frame by Samsung

Samsung Electronics today announced it is welcoming 12 of Salvador Dalí’s most striking masterpieces to Samsung Art Store¹ in partnership with the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, the private cultural institution founded by the painter himself with the mission of promoting his artistic, cultural and intellectual works in Spain and abroad.

Salvador Dalí is globally recognized for his surrealist style characterized by dreamlike imagery, mind-bending illusions and meticulous attention to detail, which made him one of the most enduring and enigmatic artists of the last 100 years. With paintings that invite the viewer to step closer and examine unexpected interplay between the bizarre and mundane, Dalí has been captivating audiences since his first work was displayed in Barcelona, Spain in 1925.

“This partnership with Samsung gives the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí a global stage for sharing Dalí’s dynamic masterpieces and legacy with an entirely new, digitally native generation,” said Andrea Fisher-Scherer, Managing Director of Merchandise Licensing at Artists Rights Society, the organization that helped secure an agreement between Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí and Samsung. “These pieces, selected especially in partnership with Samsung Art Store, allow us to show off Dalí’s most striking masterpieces and the stunning display The Frame is capable of.”

The featured works — including some of the artist’s most notable pieces like “The Persistence of Memory” (1931), “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (1946) and “Swans Reflecting Elephants” (1937) — have been curated by Samsung and sourced from the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí as well as other leading global institutions and private collections.

Dalí, born in the Catalonian town of Figueres in northeast Spain spent much of his life in that region, creating groundbreaking artworks which would go on to inspire artists and viewers alike for generations. But Dalí always aspired to share his artistic vision with a much wider audience, bringing his striking, surrealist paintings to exhibitions in Paris, London and New York — and simultaneously seeking creative inspiration and collaboration with world-renowned artists and intellectuals of his time including Coco Chanel, Sigmund Freud and Pablo Picasso, among others.

In honor of Dalí’s international legacy and the high demand for Dalí artworks on the Samsung Art Store, Samsung recognized the importance of securing this all-important partnership for lovers of art across the globe. Similarly, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí is expanding how they can provide instant, digital access to some of Dalí’s most artistically significant artworks to millions with this special partnership.

“Samsung Art Store connects millions of The Frame owners with world-renowned art from hundreds of museums, institutions and private collections across the world, and we’re thrilled to partner with Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí to bring the platform’s most searched-for and requested artist to Samsung Art Store,” said Daria Greene, Global Curator at Samsung Art Store. “These artworks from Dalí’s incredible catalog are as unique and visually arresting today as they were the day they were painted, and we’re so delighted to be giving them a digital platform for new audiences who can enjoy them outside of a museum and right from a home.”

“One of his greatest desires was to be known and that his art arrived to a wider audience,” said Clàudia Galli, Art Historian at Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí. “Dalí would be really impressed to be in people’s homes.”

Alongside these new pieces from Dalí, viewers can explore thousands of additional artworks from masters such as Claude Monet, Johannes Vermeer and Julia Contacessi in the Samsung Art Store, available for instant display on The Frame. Additionally, Samsung Art Store features art from major global institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Gallery Singapore, the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, the Prado Museum in Madrid and the Berlin State Museums.

To honor Dalí’s arrival on the Art Store, a short documentary celebrating his life and work will be launched on August 8 as part of Samsung’s “Meet the Artist” video series. Watch the full “Meet the Artist: Salvador Dalí” documentary here.

¹ A single user subscription for Art Store costs $4.99/month or $49.99/year.