Coffey & Thompson Closure Leaves Artists Reeling, Unable to Retrieve Work

In Adam Cooley’s 30 years as an international exhibiting artist, he said he’s never experienced anything like what’s occurred following the closure of Charlotte’s oldest art gallery, Coffey & Thompson.

“Horrible; it’s been horrible,” Cooley said over the phone from his home in Durham on Wednesday. “I didn’t think it was going to come to this.”

Since 2024, Cooley has had around $40,000 worth of art showing and for sale at Coffey & Thompson, part of a collective of arts organizations known as 811 Galleries on the border of the Eastover and Myers Parks neighborhoods along Providence Road. 

On Sept. 16, Coffey & Thompson and the associated tenants of 811 Galleries were evicted from the building for failure to pay rent. 

The gallery’s owner, Lauri Dewhurst Summers, has been unreachable since the closure. Queen City Nerve attempted to reach Summers through email but the addresses that once belonged to the gallery are no longer active.

Attempts to reach her by phone were also unsuccessful; the gallery’s number is disconnected and her personal number went to voicemail. 

An attorney for the property owner has let some of the 811 Galleries tenants, mainly small businesses that sublet offices there, into the building to retrieve their property. However, Queen City Nerve has spoken to multiple artists who have been shut out, hitting repeated dead ends as they try to work out plans to recover their work. 

A former staff member who did not want to be named in this article said she was as surprised as anyone by the sudden eviction, though she had seen the signs. In late 2024, she came across an email informing Summers that the gallery owed $140,000 in back rent. She prepared for the worst. 

“I told my husband, ‘We’re probably going to close soon,’” she recalled. “I figured it would last until March, but March came and went.” 

Starting in August, the staffer reported seeing Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s deputies visit weekly to have private talks with Summers. 

“She never said anything to us,” she said. “I knew it had to be an eviction. I prolly should’ve said something, but for some reason I was thinking no news is good news.” 

On Saturday, Sept. 13, Coffey & Thompson hosted an event and everything appeared to be OK, the former staff member recalled. Staff members left thinking they’d be back on Tuesday, as the gallery was closed on Sunday and Monday. 

“It was great fun, and then Lauri was like, ‘Alright, see you next week. See you Tuesday,’” she said. “She knew there was not going to be a Tuesday.” 

Since learning on Oct. 7 that the gallery had shut its doors, Cooley has been fighting to get that art back … but he already knows some of it is gone. 

According to inventory reports from before the closure, Coffey & Thompson was ostensibly in possession of 26 of Cooley’s paintings ranging in price from $850 to $2,800. The total collection is worth $37,940. 

The issue for Cooley, however, goes beyond getting the art back from inside the building. It took a potentially criminal turn for him when he learned that the gallery sold at least two of his works for thousands of dollars before the closure, never informing him of the sale or providing him with his agreed-upon cut. 

After learning of the closure, Cooley contacted some art collector friends whom he knew to be mutual friends with Summers, inquiring whether they had heard from her. They hadn’t, but they did inform him that they had bought two of Cooley’s paintings from the Coffey & Thompson gallery at the event it hosted just before its closure. 

A receipt from Coffey & Thompson dated Sept. 13 shows the couple purchased two of Cooley’s paintings — “Green Love Bird” and Blue Love Bird” — for $1,795 each. Cooley’s deal with Coffey & Thompson entitled him to 50% of any sale, or $1,795 total from that deal. 

Cooley filed a police report to create proper documentation of the issue on Nov. 19. 

“Because the gallery owner abandoned the business, refused to return calls or emails, and may have removed, concealed, or otherwise failed to safeguard the artwork, I am reporting this as possible conversion of property/unlawful withholding of property,” the report reads. “This report is being filed to document: (1) that I am the rightful owner of the artwork, (2) that the gallery owner was entrusted with it, (3) that the business has been abandoned following eviction, (4) that the location of my artwork is currently unknown, and (5) that I am making active efforts to recover my property.” 

He was told the issue was a civil matter. 

“I think they weren’t really taking into account that she had been selling my art,” Cooley said. “It’s like larceny by selling things off. It’s really pocket money; it becomes not necessarily civil.” 

Cooley has been in regular communication with the former staff members, who has acted as an advocate for the artists following the closure, and Jon Gilmartin, the attorney for the property owner. 

Queen City Nerve reviewed Cooley’s email communications with Gilmartin, in which the attorney emphasized that his client is not responsible for inventorying the items inside the now-shuttered gallery. He does, however, repeatedly assure Cooley that no work will be removed or destroyed and that Cooley will be allowed to retrieve whatever work he does have in the building at a time that is convenient for both parties. 

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Efforts to schedule a time have been unsuccessful over two months, however, and other artists who have their work locked away inside the building have told Queen City Nerve of similar experiences. 

The former staff member estimated that between 30 and 40 artists had works inside the building at the time of the closure. Coffey & Thompson also operated as a framing shop, and she estimated that 12 to 15 customers who had trusted Coffey & Thompson with valuable artwork to be framed still have between 20 to 30 pieces inside the building. 

The former staffer has tried to act as a go-between to help some of the artists coordinate with Gilmartin to find a time when artists will be allowed into the building but has hit many of the same dead ends that Cooley has. 

“Because it’s a law office, they’re being very diligent, maybe over-protective of where the records are,” she said. “They have all the control; I have done everything I can to get those artists in there. 

“It’s really not helping that Lauri is hiding,” she added.  

Requests for comment from Gilmartin had gone unanswered at the time of this writing. 

One 811 artist, Daisy Schenone, said she’s also been informed that paintings of hers were sold before the closure but received no payment. Schenone said she’s been waiting for Gilmartin to inform her when she can retrieve whatever art she has left in the building. 

The former staff member acknowledged that there is a Post-it note near the cash register that lists three artists who are owed money for previous sales, including Cooley and Schenone. Summers will be the sole person responsible for those payments. 

All this comes at a critical time for independent artists. As Cooley points out, many visual artists make a large percentage of their annual income during the holiday shopping season. 

“For all the artists involved, I mean, artists survive by the skin of their teeth at times,” Cooley said. “And especially at a gallery that they’re dealing with so many artists … The lack of empathy is pretty terrible.”