Artist sues Kai Matsumiya gallery over alleged unpaid sale proceeds

Jonathan Bruce Williams, a New York artist and technologist, is suing the Kai Matsumiya gallery and its owner over $16,441.41 he alleges he is owed after the gallery sold two of his light-box works during his debut solo show last fall, court documents show.

Williams and his company, Array Kinetics, filed the complaint June 3 in New York Civil Court against Stanton Street Art Gallery, which does business as Kai Matsumiya Gallery, and Kai Matsumiya, the gallery's principal, documents show.

The gallery, at 264 Canal Street, hosted Williams's exhibition, "Let's All Abandon Reality Together," from September to October 2025, the lawsuit said.

During the run, the gallery allegedly sold two of his works — Move 37 and Every Minute Is Midnight — to the Booth Collection at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The two pieces carried a combined list price of $27,000 and sold for $22,600 after gallery discounts, documents show. Williams's agreed share was half of that, or $11,300.

He also seeks $2,745.20 in fabrication materials and $2,396.21 in installation and transportation costs tied to the show, bringing his total claim to $16,441.41, documents show.

The gallery confirmed the sale and the prices in writing and arranged shipping through Dixon Art Services, then accepted Williams's invoices but did not pay, Williams said in his lawsuit.

Williams' lawyer served a formal demand for payment on May 21, and the gallery did not pay.

The suit's lead claim accuses the gallery of violating New York's Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, which makes art an artist consigns to a dealer, and the money from selling it, trust property the dealer holds for the artist's benefit.

The complaint says the two works and their sale proceeds were trust property and trust funds owed to Williams, and that the gallery's failure to hand over the money violated the statute.

The suit also brings claims for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, breach of an oral or implied contract, and unjust enrichment, documents show.

Matsumiya told ARTnews that Williams has since been paid and the matter was now resolved.

Williams is based on the Lower East Side and holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the gallery's exhibition materials say.

The show was co-presented with Department of Transformation, an artist group the designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy founded in 2022.

The show’s centerpiece, Move 37, took its name from a move Google's AlphaGo program played against the Go champion Lee Sedol in 2016. The gallery described the works as backlit sculptures resembling the light devices used to treat seasonal affective disorder.

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