Contemporary Artist · Harlem, New York · NYC
Corey Wesley
One of one contemporary wall art on archival museum-quality aluminum and framed. Collector contemporary art by a Harlem NYC contemporary artist. Collected, then archived.
The Artist
No longer emerging.
Already arrived.
There is a kind of person who keeps showing up in the cultural conversation under different names, in different rooms, before most people realize it is the same person. Corey Wesley is one of those people.
In 2007, his dating blog hit the top of its category before "creator" was a job title. He founded and ran OVAH Magazine. His clothing line was worn by Whoopi Goldberg on The View and Kendra Wilkinson on The Girls Next Door. He is the published author of seven books. He records music as Rex Wes — the project that brought him to NYU Tisch's Clive Davis Institute. He hosts the podcast Twisted Truth, and previously hosted Colorful Conversations. For nearly fifteen years he was a corporate finance trainer, with a parallel career in e-commerce. He is a New York State certified recovery coach.
Most creatives pick a lane. Corey has run several at once, at a level most never reach in one.
The contemporary art is what happens when a Harlem NYC contemporary artist with that many lives puts everything he has seen on a single surface. One of one contemporary wall art on archival museum-quality aluminum and framed — collector contemporary art that tells the story before a word is spoken.
If you have not heard the name yet, you will.
Corey Wesley · Harlem, New York
01
The Beginning
Wesley was raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side and is now based in Harlem. His practice as a NYC contemporary artist is shaped by the layered realities of New York, where identity is continually constructed, defended, and redefined. The work did not begin with the city. It began with a personal reckoning. The pull between who he was and who he was becoming. Between old comfort and necessary growth. That tension lives in every one of one contemporary wall art piece he creates — collector contemporary art rooted in something real.
02
Cracked Faces
The series began during a period of darkness. A time of searching, of being pulled back toward old versions of himself while reaching toward something new. The work was called Cracked Faces. Not as metaphor. As truth. The crack was what Wesley saw in himself and in the people the universe began placing in his path. Individuals from every walk of life, each carrying their own fractures, each in some stage of becoming. That origin is what separates this contemporary art from decoration. Each one of one contemporary wall art piece in the series carries the weight of a real moment. Collector contemporary art rooted not in concept, but in lived experience.
03
The Shift
Over time, Wesley started reading the cracks differently. What he had taken for damage looked more like a way through. The people he kept meeting, the ones in the middle of leaving an old version of themselves behind, didn't carry themselves like people who had been broken. They carried themselves like people who were finally getting somewhere. None of what they had been through was wasted. It was the route. That shift lives in every one of one contemporary wall art piece in the Unapologetic Faces series. Not about damage. About arrival.
04
Unapologetic
That changed the work. The crack stopped being the subject. What came through it did. The look on someone's face after they have come out the other side of something hard, when they finally stop performing for the room and just stand there, is what Wesley captures in his contemporary art.
The series became Unapologetic because that is the word for it. The moment a person stops asking permission to be who they are. That is what sits with collectors after they leave the room. One of one contemporary wall art by Harlem NYC contemporary artist Corey Wesley — on archival museum-quality aluminum and framed. The piece does not fill the wall. It resolves it.
Creative Methodology
About the Artist's Process
The Unapologetic Faces series emerges from a proprietary creative process developed over years of study — observing human faces in the subway, in Harlem, in recovery rooms, in the spaces where people are unguarded.
Corey Wesley's methodology synthesizes visual composition, color theory, and a distinct artistic vision. Each one of one contemporary wall art piece is a fully original composition created through his proprietary technique, which combines multiple disciplines refined through his practice as a Harlem NYC contemporary artist.
The outcome is what matters: a one of one work that exists nowhere else in the world. Collector contemporary art on archival museum-quality aluminum and framed. Like any contemporary artist, the tools and techniques are part of the craft. The vision is what you are acquiring.
"How do you change the world? One person at a time. One face at a time. One moment of recognition at a time."
Corey Wesley · Milton Wes Art · Harlem, New York
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For collectors, designers, hospitality buyers, press, and gallery partners. Submit a request and receive the appropriate materials directly from the studio. Each request is reviewed personally.
01
Collector One-Sheet
For private collectors, interior designers, and hospitality buyers. A concise summary of the practice, current availability, acquisition framework, and trade terms.
02
Press Kit + Lookbook
For journalists, editors, and editorial press. Full bio, high-resolution imagery, exhibition history, prior coverage, and the complete Unapologetic Faces lookbook.
03
Gallery & Curator Inquiry
For galleries, curators, and institutional partners. Direct outreach to discuss representation, exhibition opportunities, and curatorial collaboration.