I woke up to some pretty terrible news today. I found out someone named Jeanette Hayes (NYC “artist”; not be confused with London Jeanette Hayes) stole my artwork by unlawfully using it without my permission, never bothering to contact or credit me, modifying it, treating it as her sole work, and selling it for a huge sum of money.
And the worst part is, I’m not the only victim.
She’s stolen from several dozen other artists, sometimes not even attributing but fully replicating, and the galleries won’t do a thing about it except continue to back her up. When she’s confronted on the matter, she simply blocks people or deletes the comments; same with any media-outlet hosting or promoting her. In the end money talks. I don’t believe this to be artistic expression in good faith. Based on her notoriety and her responses, she’s clearly belittling the art and the artists whose works she steals from.
And really, whatever pretentious excuse is made on behalf of this “contemporary art”, it’s really just vandalism to me; absent of my feelings on the matter, absent of my love for the subject matter, absent of respect for me; because my artwork isn’t just some official stock art to be used freely.
I don’t want more people to have to feel this way, and the galleries need to know that this isn’t okay, and that this sort of behaviour shouldn’t be endorsed.
Here’s the link to the gallery: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jeanette-hayes-there-will-be-blood Here’s the email of the gallery: [email protected] Here’s a Buzzfeed article on some of the other works she’s stolen: https://www.buzzfeed.com/krishrach/an-artist-has-been-accused-of-plagiarizing-japanese-artists?utm_term=.ra8k96k63#.qdBDvoDoQ
Please help spread the word; or if you can also, please email the galleries explaining to them that things like this should not be condone. It’s sad to say, that the galleries aren’t likely to do anything unless notably pressured, and the reality is…Hayes is not at all remorseful and still continues this line of insincerity.
