Canada Gallery Survived Dissolution Bid After $3 Million Lawsuits

A New York court denied a bid to dissolve Canada, the Tribeca gallery, in May 2025, after French collector Jean Lignel filed two lawsuits alleging the gallery's founders improperly withdrew more than $3 million. The ruling, and the litigation behind it, had gone unreported until now.

The gallery remains open at 60 Lispenard Street. Neither of Lignel's lawsuits appears to be active, with the most recent filings for both posted at the start of this year. But the damage is visible in the roster: three partners and five artists have left since the suits were filed in February 2025.

Lignel lodged his claims with the New York County Supreme Court in February 2025. One lawsuit sought the dissolution of Canada. The other alleged that between 2009 and 2023, the gallery's founders "withdrew" more than $3 million — roughly $214,000 per year over that 14-year span — which he claimed ran "in violation of the operating agreement." The founders denied the allegation in a counterclaim.

Who is Jean Lignel?

Lignel's ties to Canada stretch back to 2008, when a recession battered the New York art market. A 2008 document submitted with the lawsuit shows founders Sarah Braman, Suzanne Butler, Phil Grauer, and Wallace Whitney agreed to bring Lignel on as a backer. He paid $150,000 for a 50 percent ownership stake — a small sum for half of a gallery that has operated since 1999.

According to a 6sqft profile from 2016, Lignel is a music producer, publisher, and entrepreneur. His collection includes works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Ida Applebroog. That same year, he listed his West Village home for $14.5 million.

In their counterclaim, the Canada founders said Lignel "knew that the Founding Members were being compensated for the services," and that their pay was "well below market — the going rate for partner salaries for New York art galleries comparable to the Gallery is between $350,000 to $395,000 per year." The counterclaim was discontinued earlier this year.

What did the judge rule?

In May 2025, a judge swiftly denied the motion to dissolve Canada. The judge found Lignel had failed to prove the gallery could not operate under the agreement he signed. The judge also noted Lignel "concedes that the gallery has recently hired additional managers, who are not LLC members, thereby demonstrating that the gallery is a functioning business."

A lawyer for the Canada partners told ARTnews in an email: "CANADA's four founding members — Phil Grauer, Sarah Braman, Wallace Whitney and Suzy Butler — were deeply disappointed that Mr. Lignel, their Paris-based business partner, did not support the Gallery as it expanded its operations, including during a challenging period in the art market, and subsequently sought its dissolution through litigation."

The lawyer added: "However, as the Court's decision confirmed, the Gallery remains fully operational and continues its artist-run, community-focused programming and mission. While CANADA regrets that the members' dispute involved court intervention, the Gallery remains hopeful that it can work collaboratively with Mr. Lignel in the future."

A lawyer for Lignel did not respond to ARTnews' request for comment.

Partners and artists depart

While the lawsuits were pending, Canada quietly scaled down. A comparison of the gallery's current staff page with a version saved by the Internet Archive in October 2025 suggests two partners left in the past year. Suzanne Butler, a founder and defendant in the suits, is no longer listed as a partner; ARTnews could not reach her. Tif Sigfrids, who closed her Athens, Georgia gallery in 2024 to join Canada as a partner, also left. Sigfrids declined to comment.

Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle left earlier. She exited her post as senior director of Pace Gallery in 2024 to become a partner and co-owner of Canada. After two and a half months in that role, she launched her itinerant gallery, Gladwell Projects, in March 2025 — a venture that has staged exhibitions in Harlem, Jersey City, and Paris. She declined to comment.

The roster has thinned as well. An archived version of the gallery's artist list suggests Canada shed five artists after the lawsuits: Matt Connors, Jess Fuller, Daniel Hesidence, Robert Janitz, and Joan Snyder. The gallery added one artist, Kahlil Robert Irving, last December.

Snyder, now represented by Luhring Augustine and Thaddaeus Ropac, told ARTnews by email she left Canada "under amicable circumstances" and had been unaware of the lawsuits. She said her two shows at the gallery had been "successful."

Canada also gave up its annex space across Lispenard Street, subleasing it to dealer Max Levai in August 2025; Levai has since moved his gallery to Chelsea. "We couldn't afford to keep both of the spaces," founder Wallace Whitney told Artnet News at the time. "And now, like many galleries, we are buckling down for a long haul. We want to stick around as long as possible."

The gallery, whose roster includes Joe Bradley, Katherine Bernhardt, Katherine Bradford, Samara Golden, and Rachel Eulena Williams, opened in 1999 and moved to Tribeca in 2019. Exhibitions by Scott and Tyson Reeder closed there this past weekend. Canada survived the dissolution attempt — but with a reduced bench and a co-owner relationship the founders describe as broken, its next chapter will test whether the artist-run model can outlast both the market downturn and its own internal dispute.