Milton Wes Art · Harlem, New York
Corey Wesley
Contemporary works on archival museum-quality aluminum. One of one. 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 fine art is what happens when a man with that many lives puts everything he has seen on a single surface. The face 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 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.
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.
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.
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 paints.
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 the part that sits with people after they leave the room.
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 work is a fully original composition created through his proprietary technique, which combines multiple disciplines refined through his practice.
The outcome is what matters: a one-of-one work that exists nowhere else in the world. Like any contemporary artist, the tools and techniques are part of the craft. The vision is what you're 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.