Internationally acclaimed, award-winning visual artist, creative director, and media entrepreneur Trevor Stuurman is threatening the legal route after a collective of artists, curators, and creatives criticized his latest solo exhibition, Your Beauty Is Our Concern, which is on show at THK Gallery in Cape Town.
Co-founder of the Woza Sisi Collective Tsholofelo Kodisang, alleged Stuurman’s exhibition “borrowed heavily” without permission from a previous body of work developed by her and three other photographers under the title Your Beauty Is My Concern.
In a letter of demand, the group specified that beyond the immediate removal of the exhibition Your Beauty Is Our Concern from public view at THK and all associated digital and promotional platforms and a formal and public written apology by Stuurman acknowledging the unauthorized use of our concept, they demand payment of 30% of the gross proceeds of each sale, together with legal costs incurred in pursuing this matter.
The co-founder said the plagiarism has undermined their credibility and disrupted opportunities that rightfully belonged to them. “It has created confusion around authorship and ownership, affecting our ability to present our work with the clarity and recognition it deserves.”
Cece Smith 