Court Documents: Photographer's copyright suit against Mickalene Thomas
Court records from U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
This page hosts a copyright lawsuit filed by photographer Barbara Karant and Karant + Associates against artist Mickalene Thomas, her studio entity, and the galleries Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Yancey Richardson, Kavi Gupta and Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
The complaint was filed May 26, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin. It brings six counts of copyright infringement, one against each defendant, and demands a jury trial.
Read the story: Photographer sues Mickalene Thomas and four galleries over 820 Ebony/Jet photos
Photographer sues Mickalene Thomas over Ebony/Jet photos
Barbara Karant says the artist copied more than a dozen of her Johnson Publishing Company interiors for installations and collages.
Adam Schrader
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