Painter Yirui Jia Sues Miami Beach Dealer Gabriel Kilongo for $40,000

Painter Yirui Jia is suing Miami Beach dealer Gabriel Kilongo for $40,000 she says he owes her. She received $2,000 of a $42,000 debt on five sold paintings, according to the complaint filed in September at the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The gallery that sold the work, Jupiter, was administratively dissolved on September 25 — one day after the suit.

Jia had a solo show at Jupiter's Miami Beach location in 2025. Her lawsuit, first surfaced alongside other claims by Urgent Matter, quotes Kilongo telling her he was "managing a very tight cash flow" and "waiting for a few things to clear on the gallery's end" before paying. The payments never came, the suit alleges, in breach of the consignment agreement (the standard contract under which a gallery sells an artist's work on commission) the two had signed.

A Jupiter sales report included in the filing shows all five paintings sold, at prices between $2,000 and $32,000. Two went to a Vancouver-based buyer named Bing Zhang. The other three went to Bradley Chubb, the Buffalo Bills linebacker traded from the Miami Dolphins earlier this year.

Kilongo has not responded to the complaint. He did not respond to a request for comment from ARTnews.

Who else has sued?

Jia's is one of four lawsuits against Kilongo in the past two years, and the third from an artist alleging withheld money:

• Jade Thacker, 2025. She alleged she was owed $204,000 for an unpaid sale and for unsold works from a 2024 show that were never returned. Kilongo has not responded.
• Location Incorporated, February 2026. The East Village-based entity claimed Jupiter inflicted $1.6 million in damage to a sculpture shown at Untitled Art, Miami Beach in 2024. That suit was dismissed and later settled, per Urgent Matter.
• Stephanie Pierce, March 2026. She sought $100,000, claiming unpaid sales from 2023 and withheld artworks. Kilongo, representing himself, denied the allegations, saying "payment relating to the works has been made and that the return of the remaining works is actively in progress, with a majority already returned."

What happens to the gallery?

Jupiter's footprint is shrinking fast. Urgent Matter reported in May that Kilongo surrendered his New York space to his landlord and agreed to pay $25,000. The Miami Beach outpost's status is unclear. Its website lists a two-person show for George Clinton and Gerasimos Floratos that closed this past February — nothing since.

That's a swift comedown for a gallery founded in 2022 by a former Mitchell-Innes & Nash associate, which showed regularly at Untitled, Expo Chicago and Zona Maco, and appeared at Independent New York this past May even as the lawsuits piled up.

Kilongo once promoted Jia's career enthusiastically. "We have successfully placed works by artists—like Yirui, for instance—in prominent collections, including those of some museum trustees," he told Artnet's Gallery Network, adding: "It's always incredibly gratifying to see how her work holds up along other historical artists while still maintaining Yirui's distinct and recognizable identity." Jia had a solo show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in 2024, the second-to-last there before the gallery became an advisory.

What about the ICE detention report?

Kenny Schachter reported in Artnet News that Kilongo, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and raised in Israel, was detained by ICE and later released, attributing confirmation to Jewish Museum director James Snyder. ARTnews could not establish a clear institutional connection beyond Kilongo serving on a host committee for a young collectors event at the museum this past October. ICE's online detainee database has no accessible record for him. Schachter did not disclose that he himself exhibited with Jupiter in 2025; other exhibitors include Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Baseera Khan, Marcus Leslie Singleton and Travis Fish.

With the gallery dissolved and three artist suits pending, the question is not whether Jupiter survives — it's whether the artists get paid.