Calgary artist who used images of British comedians without permission is 'extremely sorry'

The Calgary artist behind the public art that used photos of British comedians without permission and prompted an international incident this week has apologized and offered an explanation.

Derek Besant’s $20,000 piece, installed along the Fourth Street underpass in downtown Calgary two years ago, involves a series of images of people’s faces, blurred out with words overtop of them.

This week, a U.K-based comedian named Bisha Ali noted — to her surprise — that one of the photos appeared to be a picture of her, and that several others appeared to be of her fellow comic colleagues.

The common thread was that all the comedians had been involved