SALISBURY — The phoenix has almost risen from the ashes at Grievous Gallery, as the business faces permitting issues from the City of Salisbury regarding the artwork on its front facade.
The third iteration of the Grievous Gallery in Salisbury is located at 1023 Old West Innes Street, next to Blue Collar Cycle Company and Sam’s Car Wash. Tim Demers and Kim Tansey decided to start this new chapter of the gallery in April 2025 and started moving into the space in February 2026.
During the move, Demers, Tansey and Shane Pierce, the mural artist better known as Abstract Dissent, decided to paint a mural on the front of the building that represented the comeback. They settled on the phoenix, the new logo of Grievous Gallery, along with complementary lettering of “Grievous Gallery” above the window and door.
Pierce completed the mural by the end of May, with no complaints from neighbors or the city during the process. By early June, Demers and Tansey received their first correspondence from the city about a potential code violation. Tansey then started the process of filing a sign permit but ran into problems where the specific painted words did not fit the application questions.
“My argument to them was ‘if you read your own sign permit application, it says you want height off the ground and the construction site, and if you read their mural ordinance, you can put up a mural with or without lettering.’ So, when I reviewed them both, knowing what we were going to do, according to the mural ordinance, I didn’t need to file anything,’” Tansey said.
According to Land and Development Services Director Phillip Lookadoo, city staff was investigating a different potential zoning violation when they noticed the mural. They claimed a sign had been installed, referring to the lettering, without getting the proper permitting, so they reached out to the property owner requesting they get the proper permit.
Since the initial correspondence, the primary back-and-forth between the city, Tansey and Demers has concerned what constitutes a mural versus a sign. The primary sign ordinances fall in section 12 of the land development ordinance.
Lookadoo clarified that the portion of the artwork under question is specifically the lettering, not the mural of the phoenix. Based on the permitted wall sign dimensions, the area of a sign’s letters can only be “1.6 square feet per linear foot of building wall.” They are now requesting more information about blueprints and measurements from Grievous Gallery to get a permit in order.
Demers and Tansey are now working to gather site plans and blueprints to clarify the size of the structure relative to the signage. However, the opening of the gallery has been delayed by this signage dispute, leaving them eager to resolve the matter.
“When people are walking through that door, letting things go here and leaving better off than what they came, that’s my only income. It’s holding me back from putting gas in my car, going to church, eating,” Demers said. “Let’s not do all this for nothing. Let something good come out of this.”
This is not the first time Pierce has had to deal with town disputes over his murals in Rowan County. His murals at Grove Cartel Brewing Company in China Grove ran into roadblocks with the town, but ultimately the murals were allowed to stay. Pierce expressed frustration that towns and cities insert themselves in art, particularly in Salisbury where he got his start.
“It’s not easy for me to work with someone’s ideas and have a city come in and give their opinion on the composition as well,” Pierce said. “I didn’t think this would happen in Salisbury because it is where my art took off.”
Beyond the gallery owners themselves, social media and neighbors have backed the Grievous Gallery with a petition supporting the mural. At the time of publication, the petition has over 600 signatures. It was also started by someone completely separate from the business. The community support has pushed Demers and Tansey to keep going.
They have also seen support after Pierce shared a video on social media explaining the situation, mocking other signs that are more clearly signage compared to the mural. On Facebook alone, the video has over 59,000 views and hundreds of comments supporting the business.
“It’s made all this struggle worth it because they have our back, and they’re excited. We know we’re not doing all of this in vain before we even open our doors,” Tansey said.
Demers emphasized that public art on businesses is becoming commonplace in the city and surrounding areas, and that is not a bad thing.
“There’s a lot of confusion in these issues, and there’s more and more businesses that have murals or painted lettering on the side of their buildings. For the most part, it’s really, really good-looking stuff. It brings color. It’s friendly,” Demers said. “We need to (fight) for the other artists and especially for our future business owners in town, these people that are taking everything they’ve got to fix up these buildings and bring them up to code. It’s just the principle.”
