NORTH OF THE BORDER BASQUIAT DISCOVERY: Art Gallery of Ontario Features Jason Halter’s “Gray Matter Archive” Basquiat Works; Loaned To Gallery By One Of The Toronto Art Shysters Directly Involved In Orlando Museum of Art Debacle

“Lee had been working to prepare the Mumford Collection for a potential sale with Talin Maltepe of Sevan Art Gallery. Maltepe is a prominent art consultant, dealer and broker based in Toronto. She has a unique niche in the art world, specializing in consulting on due diligence for paintings that are not catalogued. She, in turn, brought in a colleague, Jason Halter, a respected architect who also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto teaching architecture, landscape, and design.”

In an exclusive report published April 4, 2022 on Medium, I revealed the shocking history of Talin Maltepe and Jason Halter — two Toronto residents directly involved in the “due diligence” of the fugazi Basquiats that ended up tainting the walls of the Orlando Museum of Art.

While former OMA director Aaron De Grift twists in the wind, waiting vainly for “vindication”, Halter has been using the “museum exhibition trick” to his “Gray Matter Collection” of “Basquiat” works.

And while the show at the Art Gallery of Ontario ends in less than 48 hours, I have another exclusive — pictures of the works and Halter’s claims of his own “lost Basquiats”.

Here are a selection of Jason Halter’s “Basquiat” artworks, analyzed by “world-renowned experts, gallerists, and artists, using forensic materials and signature expertise to determine veracity and confirm authenticity.”

Translated: dead guys like Diego Cortez, shown above flanked by Talin Maltepe and Jason Halter.

Here are the “Basquiat” works owned by Jason Halter’s Gray Matter Archive. Makes you wonder why they’ve never hit the market…oh, wait!

American Chinese Food
1986
oil stick on paper

Used Car Lot
1987
oil stick on paper

Bread
1986
oil stick on paper

TV Dinner
1986
oil stick on paper

Blue Plate Lunch (shown at bottom right)

1986

The following drums as described in the exhibition catalogue:

These drums are inscribed with images and text that invoke the history of Black people in America and elsewhere. One of the skins reads “Ceremonial Dance Wand” — a phrase that speaks to the role these instruments play in ceremonies involving movement and dance. Other illustrations recall the
injustices of slavery and misconceptions about African culture.

Gee, that description almost sounds like the horseshit Jordana Moore Saggese was paid $60,000 to write!

“From cigars and television shows to Picasso and interstellar travel, Basquiat’s canvases teem with contemporary and historical references to people, places, and things both ordinary and extraordinary. Like the twenty-four-hour news cycle — which was introduced in 1980 — and the Internet, his paintings compress the plane on which images and messages from different times and places — some tinged with nostalgia and others with cryptic or humorous flair
— vie for our attention.”

Oh, for fuck sake!

Left:

Untitled (Cigaers)
1986
oil stick and acrylic on canvas

Right:

Untitled (Open 24 Hours)
1986
oil stick and acrylic on canvas

In a June 14, 2016 Facebook post (screen shot below), Halter’s business partner, Talin Maltepe, boasted that she would “smile” when she sold the painting.

Six years later, and she still hasn’t cracked that smile!

In the final image, “Goldtooth”, is described as although Basquiat “may not have expressly intended this to be a self-portrait, the grimacing face that floats against the blue background is likely an example of the artist referencing himself. The gold incisor may depict Basquiat’s unfulfilled wish for similar bling to replace the front tooth he had lost in childhood.”

However, exclusive information provided to me by a source indicated the “Bluetooth” painting was sold to a Florida man who calls himself “Bobby Zeee” by Talin Maltepe in May 2021.

Maybe Bobby Zeee is looking at flipping his “art”?

He should call Aaron De Grift for advice: I hear he’s an “Independent Art Expert & Museum Consultant” now.