Bootleg artist shut down by high-rent gallerist

Tom Moody calls Eric Doeringer "a practicing appropriationist in a lineage with Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Sherrie Levine, and especially Elaine Sturtevant." But a Chelsea gallerist has called the cops on the artist, temporarily putting an end to his creation of "bootleg art," recreations of high-priced artworld commodities—or what Moody calls "best souvenirs of art world brand names." It's still not entirely clear if the problem with Doeringer is his knockoffs (and the critique of contemporary art's commodity fetishism) or the fact that he sells them on the street without a street-vendor's license. But the gallery owner, Mike Weiss, admitted to Doeringer that he didn't like "seeing people walking around with tiny paintings," while he was paying high rent for his gallery and, "trying to sell $30,000 paintings."

[Image: Doeringers from Moody's collection.]