Two artists claim T.O. restaurant copied their art
Old School eatery owner says ‘both of these signs were made from scratch’
A few weeks ago, Kelly Mark was online, searching for some photos of a neon artwork she had made for a client, a shop in Seattle. She wasn’t happy with the images she had and hoped social media, with its appetite for ubiquitous documentation, might provide better. It provided something else, though. “I did a Google image search of ‘Kelly Mark’ and ‘neon,’ ” she said. “Fifty images came up right away. Immediately, I knew one of them wasn’t mine.”
The piece in question was hanging at Old School, a restaurant on Dundas St. W. near Bathurst that opened in May. It had been posted on Instagram and Pinterest, some by various fans of Mark — she’s well-known here, with pieces collected by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario — expressing excitement and congratulations, and calling her by name.
The problem: It wasn’t hers but what appeared to be a copy of a cheeky text piece she made in 2006 and showed at Mercer Union, a Toronto artist-run centre.
The text reads, “I called shotgun infinity when I was twelve.” The copy, like the original, configures each line in the same way. Both versions are rendered in bright red neon.
Mark, exasperated, contacted her lawyer and served notice to the restaurant last week. She is demanding, among other things, that the piece be taken down immediately and destroyed.
“It’s not fair to the collectors that have bought it,” she said (the work is an edition of three, with two having been sold).
In the tartly worded letter, the firm representing Mark says that the copy “will injure our client’s reputation and standing as an artist.” It goes on to say that “(A)nyone with even a passing acquaintance of our laws (such as a 12-year-old child) knows that it is wrong to copy the work of another.”
Mark, who is represented by Diaz Contemporary in Toronto, has worked in neon frequently, often using ironic quips. Past works include phrases such as “I have no issues” or “Nothing is so important that it needs to be made in six foot neon.” The piece is exactly six feet tall.
Mark, having paid a visit to the restaurant, noticed another neon piece, of a pig with wings, hanging on the wall in the back dining room. Turning to Google images again, she found a strikingly similar work by another artist, Daniel A. Bruce in New York, who had shown it at that city’s Dean Project Gallery in 2012.
The work is widely photographed and available for viewing online as well; aside from the colour — Bruce’s piece is pink, with white wings; the apparent copy is all white — the two are identical. Bruce, like Mark, is also planning to file a suit based on copyright infringement.
“Sometimes being copied is the highest form of flattery,” he said, “but only if you get credit. When someone has been brazen enough to take credit for your work in support of his brand and personal identity, that’s a whole other matter.”
As of Tuesday, the restaurant had not responded to Mark’s letter. It names the partners of Old School, Brad Moore and Ian Kapitan.
When reached by the Star via email, Moore replied that he would be “attending to (the complaints) at the fullest extent as soon as I am able,” though he wrote that “suggesting the self-designed flying pig is (Bruce’s) somehow leans towards crazy in my initial opinion.”
Moore concluded his email by seeming to refute the suggestion that the neon pieces in the restaurant were copies: “Both of these signs were made from scratch, both relating directly to our Old School story. No has has (sic) stolen anything thank you.”
Mark wants the sign removed as soon as possible and is demanding, besides its destruction, undisclosed financial damages.
Initially, though, she had another remedy in mind had the partners come to the table sooner. As compensation, she had hoped to propose a commission that would serve as a more lighthearted response: another piece — properly attributed, of course — that would read “Old Schooled.” The restaurant could hang it on the wall in place of the one they removed.
She plans to make the piece regardless, with a slight addition: “For Brad,” she laughed.