Chicago Photographer Accuses Mickalene Thomas of Copyright Infringement
Chicago photographer Barbara Karant filed a federal lawsuit in Illinois on May 26 accusing artist Mickalene Thomas of copyright infringement, alleging Thomas “appropriated more than a dozen” of her images without consent or proper attribution. The complaint centers on Karant’s 820 Ebony/Jet (2013–15) series of 250 photographs taken inside the vacant former Johnson Publishing Company headquarters in Chicago, a South Michigan Avenue high-rise sold to Columbia College Chicago in 2010; Johnson Publishing ceased operations in 2016. Karant alleges an installation in Thomas’s 2024 exhibition All About Love at The Broad incorporated her photographs, and also cites Thomas’s collage Nus Exotiques #10 (2025) as using a window fragment from the series. The suit also names galleries including Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Yancey Richardson, Kavi Gupta, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia; Lévy Gorvy Dayan said it is respectful of artists’ rights but would not comment due to active litigation, and Kavi Gupta said it would continue supporting Thomas.
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This story was covered in Restitution Shockwaves and AI’s Hollywood Heist