On October 22 2022
Cory Dingle took a significant step toward resolving a 15-year deadlock that had paralyzed the Norval Morrisseau Estate. Norval Morrisseau passed away on December 4, 2007. According to his 2000 Will, 100% of his copyright and personal effects were left to his adopted son, Gabe Vadas. However, in 2010, Morrisseau’s seven children contested the Will, leading to a settlement in 2013. Under the agreement, Vadas retained 50% of the copyright, while the remaining 50% was divided equally among Norval’s children. This arrangement required unanimous consent from all eight parties for any use of the copyright, effectively preventing institutions, businesses, or causes from utilizing Morrisseau’s imagery. Over the next decade, alongside the widespread forgery of his paintings, this legal impasse further diminished the value of Morrisseau’s art.
In March 2023 Cory Dingle contacted me to share his story. He told me that he was a friend of Gabe Vadas who assisted him in caring for Morrisseau at various times during the 1990s, when Norval was battling Parkinson’s disease and struggling with mobility issues. After suffering a motorcycle accident in 1998 Dingle went his own way, and did not reconnect with either Morrisseau or Vadas until around 2021. At that time, Vadas reached out, offering Dingle the opportunity to see what he could do to get the Morrisseau Estate on track. Having retired at 40, after finding success in e-commerce, Dingle, at almost 60, was thrilled by the prospect and accepted the offer.
In the months that followed Dingle sought out each of Norval Morrisseau’s seven children. Eventually, he succeeded in securing signatures from all eight parties on an agreement to establish a new corporate entity: Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. Under this arrangement, each shareholder would receive payments in exchange for granting Dingle unilateral authority to run the corporation. Suddenly, the long-standing deadlock was broken. Morrisseau’s imagery was once again available for licensing, and opportunities began to emerge.
“I put together a 2, 5, 10, 15 year game plan and everybody agreed to it. It took a while, but we made a full fledged corporation under B.C. law. The Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd., and all the assets and intellectual property was signed into that Corporation… So now anything, yes, that comes through online or anything we can now act unilaterally.” (Cory Dingle, March 2023)
Over the years I have battled not just the forgery networks, but also my frustration with Gabe Vadas. He had always possessed the power to address these issues yet repeatedly chose inaction. In 2007, he settled a small claims lawsuit with Joseph Otavnik by simply paying the full amount demanded of $10,000 plus court costs. Gabe later told me that he was overwhelmed by Norval’s passing and found it easier to hand over $11,000 than to contest Otavnik’s claim in court. This decision emboldened Otavnik, who went on to intimidate and sue many others. Gabe had needlessly created a monster. In 2010 I went to trial with Otavnik in a duplicate lawsuit and won.
Gabe Vadas had every right and reason to challenge Norval Morrisseau’s estranged children when they contested Norval’s Will. Vadas knew they were all members of the Morrisseau Family Foundation (MFF) and were deeply involved in the very fraud that had exploited their father. In fact, in a 2007 press release, Norval and Gabe publicly disavowed the MFF. Gabe knew Norval wanted them to get nothing from him. Norval’s attitude hardened during his one and only visit with his estranged family in the early spring of 2002. After decades of separation, he attempted to reconnect, but his visit turned into a nightmare. Norval was used and manipulated by those who saw him as little more than a ‘golden egg’ resource waiting to be drained. In failing health and without proper medication, he ultimately had to make his escape from the clutches of convicted forger, Gary Lamont, and the feeding frenzy of sharks that surrounded him. Gabe rescued him.
Despite knowing all this, Gabe told me he feared losing everything to Norval’s children. So rather than fighting to retain his right to Norval’s Will, he chose to settle, with a plan to paralyze the market by ensuring that nothing productive would come from the agreement. The result? The copyright remained locked in a state of limbo, effectively dead for more than a decade – that is until Cory Dingle stepped in.
When the Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. (NMEL) was officially created on Oct. 22 2022, it was signed into being by Gabe Vadas and Lisa Morrisseau. With that, operational control of the Estate essentially passed to Cory Dingle, who would take on various leadership titles, including President, CEO, and Executive Director. Vadas, with 50% of the estate assets, held on to the behind-the-scenes power to fire Dingle.
Cory is not an artist, yet by 2023, he had begun publicly claiming to be a world-class musician, allegedly playing, educated and/or teaching at multiple institutions. None of this appears to be true. I scoured the many web pages where he boasts of his musical prowess but found no actual recordings – not a single note of music to support his grandiose claims. Despite this, he was recently selected as a judge in the music category at the Surrey Muse Awards, while the Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. (NMEL), represented by Cory Dingle, sponsored the art category at the same event. It seems clear that he is actively constructing a false narrative about both himself – and Norval.
I have listened to every podcast, watched every video, and read every article I could find that featured Cory Dingle. The conclusion is inescapable: he is not a worthy Norval Morrisseau spokesperson. Yet publicly, and in other matters, it appears that Cory Dingle is the sole representative of the NMEL. Gabe Vadas and Norval’s seven children have remained silent for years, letting Cory speak for them. Instead of preserving the simple truth, Cory spins tall tales, blending small grains of reality into incoherent word salads. In my opinion he is intoxicated with power, misleading the public, misusing the Estate’s assets, and further damaging Morrisseau’s artistic and cultural legacy.
“Norval’s dead and that job is done. So go on to your boat and fish, and be Gabe, and play music. You’re not on this planet to run a 100 person business… that’s me” (Dingle’s advice to Gabe Vadas as he reiterated to Ritchie Sinclair, March 2023.)
Cory had the right idea. The money-making media machine that is Norval Morrisseau’s artistic legacy has the potential to be a lucrative boon to society. Properly managed, it could benefit both the art world and society at large. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on responsible stewardship, Cory stepped into the role of spokesperson.
Loading...
Reload document
Open in new tab “So people look like frigging ants under our feet, and through a corporation you can do that, because you can seem larger than life.” (Cory Dingle, March 2023)
Cory Dingle fancies himself an expert in authenticating Morrisseau art. I don’t agree. He lacks the depth of knowledge and experience required to properly separate genuine Morrisseau works from the countless forgeries that have flooded the market.
When it comes to Norval’s adult children authenticating their father’s work, I have also been vocal in pushing back. In my view, they have no place certifying anything, given their sinister roles in the fraud that plagued Morrisseau’s legacy.
“I started the process of allowing them to be forgiven and to come clean and once we got through the Police interviews and the Police told me, yep, every single one of them came clean and said that they fucked up – and here’s the evidence”. (Cory Dingle speaks to Ritchie Sinclair about Morrisseau’s children confessing to the police, March 2023.)
Unique conflict-of-interest issues abound in the labyrinths of the Morrisseau Estate. Under such circumstances it is essential that authentication opinions be provided by independent parties. By offering their own art verification services the Estate has only succeeded in making itself into an attractive target for lawsuits. Far from restoring Morrisseau’s legacy,
Cory Dingle’s actions appear to be actively undermining it.
Loading...Cory Dingle has shown a reckless disregard for the proper use of Norval Morrisseau’s copyright and estate assets yet he appears to have access to everything. Not just Morrisseau’s paintings but also his drums, rattles, furs, sculptures, recordings, books, and hundreds of unfinished paintings. Instead of preserving these works with integrity, he is enlisting other artists to complete them, which is a disastrous decision in an already chaotic market. The Morrisseau art world is riddled with confusion and fraud, and Dingle’s actions only add to the problem. By altering these unfinished works, he diminishes their historical and artistic value, further muddying the distinction between authentic and compromised pieces.
4(a) I DIRECT that a.11 of the items of religious significance that I own at the date of my death, including drums, rattles, stones, skins, skulls, headdresses, clothing, jewelry, carvings and talismans be donated to an appropriate public institution which will allow for display to the public; provided however that, during his lifetime, Gabor Michael Vadas (“Gabe”) shall have access to those items for religious purposes. (2013 Will Settlement, Michael Morrisseau v Vadas)
With Dingle’s decision to erroneously employ AI technology, not to merely cross-check artwork authenticity, but to utilize robot painters to paint duplicate paintings for a hefty price, he wades still deeper into the river’s abyss. One surmises that similar robots will soon create copies of the copies, and even create new original paintings in the style of Morrisseau. There are good reasons we call original art, Original Art. Robotics AI is the last thing the Morrisseau Estate should be involved in developing. Robot-made replica Morrisseau paintings do nothing to help clean up his legacy. Instead, they are likely to lead to more fraud, and are potentially a dangerous adventure that could irreparably dilute the Morrisseau art market, much like artist, Robert Batemen, did to his legacy with Limited Edition prints.
“There’s two schools named after Norval. There are healing institutions. There are academic institutions. There are remote Indigenous communities,” said Dingle, sitting in front of a rarely-shown Morrisseau.“They could never afford to buy this painting, to hang it in their halls, to have the healing and the lessons of it, so we need to be able to produce high level reproductions that bring the life of that painting to these places.” | The Canadian Press ·
Beyond the robot painter scheme, as an authentication device the reasoning of ‘NORVAL AI’ is flawed. An artificial intelligence model built on a foundation of quicksand fuelled by Cory Dingle’s authenticity assessments and ‘blanket’ guilty pleas by forgers cannot reliably differentiate between legitimate and forged Norval Morrisseau art. This AI pipedream ultimately leads to more smoke and mirrors. Cory Dingle is not an artist. He never painted with Norval. i.e. his knowledge is rudimentary and remote. People say he has amassed a large personal collection of Morrisseau art purchased when the market was depressed. If true, he is biased.
Acrylic Robotics founder Chloë Ryan poses for a photograph next to several copies of Norval Morrisseau paintings made by a robot trained on artificial intelligence.
Acrylic’s painted works – replicated with authorization and support from the Morrisseau Estate – “are better than the fakes that convinced all the institutions.”, according to Cory Dingle, the Estate’s Executive Director. | Acrylic Robotics – Instagram |
Recently, I addressed this issue of compromised artwork in an open letter directed at Cory Dingle, the NMEL, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Canadian public. The letter focuses on Dingle’s latest misguided idea. That of commissioning a minor artist to add imagery to a life-sized reproduction of Norval Morrisseau’s most famous painting, Man Changing into Thunderbird. It is one of the most absurd and irresponsible ideas I have ever encountered in the art world. I can find no historical precedent for such an act. Nowhere in the history of fine art has anyone tampered with a masterpiece in this way. It is an insult to Morrisseau’s legacy, a blatant misrepresentation of his work, and a gross misuse of the Estate’s authority.
In March 2023
Cory asked for my opinion on EA Studios. I enthusiastically recommended them, vouching for the authenticity of all their paintings. I also spoke directly with Joseph Helmy of EA Studios, encouraging him to collaborate with Cory to strengthen the legitimacy of Morrisseau’s market. At first, it seemed promising. NMEL and EA Studios even co-sponsored an exhibition at the Whyte Museum. However, Dingle appears to have botched up this partnership as well. While the allegations have not been proven in court, if the recent $1.45 million lawsuit against Cory Dingle and the Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. is accurate, Cory has been sabotaging EA Studios, stealing their clients, undermining their reputation, and slandering the title to their paintings.
EA Studios v Cory Dingle et al Statement of Claim, March 2025 | The Defendants’ false and fabricated public claims of their own expertise, history as protectors of Norval’s legacy, and “official” status as the representatives and authenticators of that legacy have aggravated and amplified the harm to the Plaintiff.
EA Studios v Cory Dingle et al Statement of Defence, May 2025 | In further answer to the entirety of the Statement of Claim, the comments made were comments on matters of public interest, namely the protection of the Canadian and global reputation of Morrisseau and his art, and the role of the Estate as the only authorized body to do so.
Loading...That said, Cory did accomplish one critical thing: he united all the stakeholders and got the Estate moving in the right direction. The last thing we need is for Norval’s legacy to be buried in obscurity again. However, NMEL now requires a neutral, competent administrator to handle the business side. Someone who is not personally invested in spinning their own narrative. Morrisseau’s art will always speak for itself.
Neither the corporation nor its members should play any role in authentication. Instead, authentication should rely on my years of experience painting side-by-side with Morrisseau bolstered by the precision expertise I’ve derived from successfully defending his artistic legacy in battle since 2008. I am able to comprehensively categorize Morrisseau works as genuine, questionable, or fake, ensuring that his true artistic legacy is properly protected. I don’t buy or sell Morrisseau art so my opinions aren’t biased, and I will defend them in court. When necessary, to confirm authenticity, I will be assisted by trustworthy people offering specialized experience and expertise.
When it comes to copyright issues, the Estate must take a straightforward, legal approach, using lawyers to both protect Morrisseau’s authentic images, and ensure proper licensing. There’s no need for carnival-barker tactics, fear-mongering, or other overblown PR maneuvers. The NMEL needs to move on without Cory Dingle. No more wild schemes or self-aggrandizing narratives. It’s a good time for him to call it a day and return to his music career in Palm Springs, California.
“And on top of it, until the Canadian Govt. gets off their ass to help us with this, I want a little pressure out there.” (Cory Dingle, March 2023, speaking about using Morrisseau art marketplace confusion to push for institutional action.)
In the spirit of moving forward, the Estate might negotiate a reasonable settlement with EA Studios, along with a formal apology for any damage done. This will allow both parties to focus on what truly matters: Norval’s artistic legacy. Despite the Morrisseau children’s complicity in the fraud, and their feigned narrative of being fraud victims themselves, they will be primary financial recipients of their father’s future success. So be it. Though they confessed (with excuses) the Crown chose not to prosecute them.
The bigger picture remains clear. Norval Morrisseau’s art needs to be everywhere. His work belongs on billboards, in media, in books, games, and films. His pure, unbridled spirit is more relevant now than ever. The more Norval’s legitimate art is visible and celebrated, the more value it will generate for the Estate’s shareholders, ensuring that his legacy is not only preserved but elevated.
An opinion article written by Ritchie Sinclair, August 2025
