New York’s Jeffrey Deitch gallery apologized to artist Miles Greenberg after rapper Lexa Gates staged a performance inside a giant wheel at the gallery on January 14 to promote her album. Greenberg noted striking similarities to his own endurance piece Oysterknife, in which he walked on a conveyor belt for nearly a full day, first performed at the Marina Abramović Institute in 2020 and restaged at Jeffrey Deitch in 2021. Gates responded that she had never seen Greenberg’s work, but the gallery later acknowledged an “unauthorized derivative” of Greenberg’s work had taken place without his consent.
This incident matters because it raises questions about artistic appropriation, credit, and the responsibilities of galleries when derivative works occur in their spaces. The apology from Jeffrey Deitch—a major commercial gallery—signals that even unintentional borrowing can have reputational and ethical consequences in the art world. It also highlights the tension between commercial music promotion and fine art performance, and the ongoing sensitivity around endurance-based works that push physical limits.