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The Gallery Owe blog has recently been updated with some news and links regarding the issues with Sergio Patrich and Gallery O.

I received a very professional-looking e-invite to the Matruh International Granite Sculpture Symposium, which has a very professional-looking website. I haven't been able to poinpoint exactly whether this is real or a scam, but I suspect it's another elaborate cheque scam.

Westender.com covers the story on Sergio Patrich, whose gallery recently closed due to eviction and who continues to owe several artists commissions and unsold work. It's quite discouraging to see that even artists who protect themselves and win court battles still have difficulty collecting what's theirs.

Flickr is a photo-sharing website launched in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. Although the service has been very useful for organizing and sharing photos, artists are enouraged to revisit their Terms & Conditions, along with their new changes.

Some noteworthy articles:

This review/response on the Saatchi Gallery's "Your Gallery" section is courtesy of Sara Kelly, former Associate Director of CARFAC Ontario:

Some artists are reporting receiving invitations to "show" their work on the Saatchi Gallery website. The Saatchi Gallery is a gallery in London, England which showcases contemporary art in the collection of Charles Saatchi, who is known for launching the careers of many contemporary British artists, especially those artists known as the "YBAs", or Young British Artists (Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Sarah Lucas, Chris Ofili, etc.).

The invitations refer to "Your Gallery", a more recent initiative operating as part of the Saatchi Gallery website which allows artists to upload images of their work, thus creating an online community for artists and providing exposure.

I heard from Hans about this issue, and he said that "Many artists had extensive contracts, did extensive research, took him to court and have still not recovered their paintings or received and money."

For an idea of the kind of thing that has been happening, read Frank Zeidler's personal account of his experience with Patrich.

I recently received an email from artist Hans Engel, who had an unfortunate experience with a gallery. Engel's work had been on display at Gallery O in Vancouver, whose director was Sergio Patrich. A sudden closure of the gallery left him with uncollected paintings, and money from sold paintings.

Straight.com covers the story here, and a blog has been setup to track the issue.

"Deborah Collins" (debbie.collins5@yahoo.com) has been reported as a scammer on the CARFAC Ontario web forum. The full email can be found on the CARFAC Ontario forum page.

The following email was forwarded to me by an artist whose work is on Artists Space. It's typical bait for the shipping/cheque scam. Beware of this and similar emails if you are on Artists Space or other online galleries.

Coxsoft Art News provides a more suspicious opinion on the LICC.