The Amended Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement

Shevaun Wright, detail of “The Amended Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement” (2019). Digital print on paper, 8 panels, each 29.5” x 29.5”, framed. Courtesy the artist.

Shevaun Wright, detail of “The Amended Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement” (2019). Digital print on paper, 8 panels, each 29.5” x 29.5”, framed. Courtesy the artist.

Three artworks line a hallway painted white. The artworks have white frames. The artworks feature a text document that shows edits, and a variety of emojis overlaying the text.
Three artworks line a hallway painted white. The artworks have white frames. The artworks feature a text document that shows edits, and a variety of emojis overlaying the text.
Two artworks line a hallway painted white. The artworks have white frames. The artworks feature a text document that shows edits, and a variety of emojis overlaying the text.
A long white hallway has text about the exhibition and then a series of artworks hung next to it.
Eight artworks line a white hallway with black tile floors. The artworks are hung in white frames and each has a document inside it with a variety of emojis overlaid on top.
Eight artworks line a white hallway with black tile flooring. Each artwork is hung in a white frame and is a document with a variety of emojis overlaying the text.

The Amended Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement
Shevaun Wright

Walter Phillips Gallery, Satellite Space
Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Building, First Floor

June 15 - August 25, 2019

In 1971, American conceptual artist Seth Siegelaub worked with lawyer Robert Projansky to produce a contract known as 'The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement'. Intended to function as a legal document that ensured artists’ resale rights after a purchase or acquisition, the agreement also functioned as a conceptual artwork that has become an important touchpoint for ensuing conversations on art and law.

In the new body of work, The Amended Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, Los Angeles-based artist and lawyer Shevaun Wright presents an edited version of Siegelaub and Projansky's document. Marked with track changes and comments in its margins, Wright’s work serves as a direct response to the original document’s limitations, while extending conversations around the ethical implications of collecting and racial underpinnings of contemporary art.

Artist Biography

Shevaun Wright

Shevaun Wright is a lawyer and artist who is primarily engaged in an interdisciplinary practice that utilizes the contractual medium and the notion of the social contract, as well as re-contextualized dialogues as a tool for engaging in institutional, legal, and artistic critique. Informed by her Aboriginal heritage, she aims to extrapolate feminist and post-colonial critiques of the law and art as a means to access and reveal similarities in their discursive practices. She has master's degrees in law and art and is currently undertaking an MFA at UCLA in Professor Mary Kelly’s Interdisciplinary Studio.